A Fistful of Gemstones
by Superfan44
Summary: When Merida and her cousin Hiccup learn of two gemstones made by their ancestors buried deep in the Spanish desert, they set out, along with Hiccup's friends and Toothless to find them. Multi-crossover between Brave, HTTYD, Puss in Boots, and Hansel and Gretel: witch hunters. OC's included, full summary inside. T for some Violence
1. Author's Introduction

**Alright, so this is my Western themed multi-crossover "A Fistful of Gemstones". Here's the plot:**

"**When Merida and her cousin Hiccup learn of two Gemstones that were made by their ancestors buried deep in the Spanish desert, they set off, along with Hiccup's friends and Toothless, to find them, hoping that they will represent their families. Along the way, they meet a young revenge seeking drifter named Django (an OC I created for the story), two swashbuckling cats (Puss in Boots and Kitty Softpaws), and two witch hunting siblings (Hansel and Gretel) who join the group in a race against others (Outlaws, Bandits, Assassins, Soldiers, and a group of desert witches) to reach the gemstones.**

**I had wanted to do a western themed story for a while now, I wanted to do a multi-crossover that still retains the settings and characters from each of their respective films, but at the same time, does it in a completely different genre, the western genre, which I wanted to tackle for a very long time. My interest in westerns first started earlier this year when I was thinking about the recent movie "Hansel and Gretel: witch hunters" and felt that the steampunk weapons in that movie would fit well in a western, and I also thought about the recent western "Django Unchained" and learned more about a sub-genre that started in the 1960s known as "Spaghetti Westerns" (westerns that were filmed in Europe and were directed and produced by Italians). Then in April, I watched the iconic Spaghetti western "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" (1966) (which stared the young Clint Eastwood, and was directed by an Italian filmmaker named Sergio Leone) which gave me even more inspiration to the story. The story will feature many references to Westerns and Spaghetti Westerns. Even the title itself is a reference to a Spaghetti Western titled "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964) which was also directed by Leone and stared Clint Eastwood.**

**The name for my OC Django was inspired by the name for the protagonist from the movie "Django Unchained", as well as the 1966 Spaghetti Western titled "Django" and many other, I just liked the name so much that decided to give my OC that name, since it has been used multiple times in many Spaghetti Westerns, and the name sounds interesting. I'm not claiming the name as an original Idea, but my character will be an OC in this story. Just giving you the heads up.**

**This will also be my first story to include a soundtrack. This is basically YouTube links for songs and music that will appear in a certain chapter to go with the scene. There will be some music from the films that I crossover, but it will mostly have music and soundtracks from many westerns which I am using to fit into the story for a specific scene.**

**Crossing Brave and HTTYD was there from the start, I added Puss in Boots into the mix because of the settings and landscapes in the movie (also the characters, which I will appear in the story), and I included Hansel and Gretel from "Hansel and Gretel: witch hunters" (who were played by Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton) because of them being fairy tale characters (like Puss in Boots) and because of their steampunk, retro-futuristic weaponry which I think would also fit in the story, and created a few for the OC's that I made for the story. I also included the idea of Merida and Hiccup as cousins, an Idea that I really liked after reading the fic "Long Lost Relations" by Luna Awesomesauce 1012 ( s/8487814/1/Long-Lost-Relations) that I decided to use in the story. Though I am trying to keep some of it as distant from their story as possible, if the author is reading this. **

**I guess I have explained a lot to you guys, so on with the story, I hope you like it, and that It inspires others to do their own western theme stories. And now, I present to you "A Fistful of Gemstones"**


	2. Preparations

**Alright, here's the first chapter. It's basically going to start off with Merida, her family, and the other members of castle Dunbroch, preparing for Stoic's arrival, and it would also show Hiccup with his dad, his friends, and Toothless as they prepare for their arrival. I'm gonna start the story off slow, and then in the next few chapters, it will pick up a little bit more. Enjoy. P.S. When you see the little comma that says "Music starts" go to the link right next to it, and look for the length at which the track goes for in the chapter.**

Chapter 1

It was always very breezy in the mountains of the highlands, the sun was shining, the forest was alive with birds and animals, and there was one girl who enjoyed it more than anybody else. Princess Merida, the young princess of the Dunbroch clan, whose spirit and adventure matched her accuracy with a bow and arrow, was sitting alongside a grassy hill with her horse Angus. Who was grazing like always in the grass while she was making some carvings in her bow while looking at the amazing view in front of them. Ever since the incident with her mother, Queen Elinor, turning into a bear, she understands her responsibilities as a princess, but has been allowed more freedom. She had gotten herself a new bow from the armory since the other one that she had was burned by her mother (although she did apologize about it to her before, which her daughter forgave her for). She had always enjoyed like this, but this day would be a very special one to her. Today, her distant cousin Hiccup, whom she hasn't seen in years, is coming over with his father over to the Dunbroch castle for a family visit. He was bringing all of his friends to come along with him, but there was one friend he was bringing that excited her the most, the night fury dragon known as Toothless. Merida and her family had always been writing to Stoick and his son, they've been writing back as well. When they heard that Hiccup learned about his discovery of training dragons, they were all amazed and curious, Merida especially. When Hiccup sent letters, he would tell him about the adventures that he and his friends have had, ways to train dragons, new instincts and abilities that dragons have, and even some of the new dragons that they have encountered. The sun was in the middle of the sky by now, and Merida knew that she had to get back so that she would be there when they arrived.

**(Music Starts: watch?v=0I39qE5gZv0&list=PL0EED0B87E6761099 , 0:00 – 1:06)**

"Come on Angus" Merida said to her horse in her Scottish accent "Let's go home" she mounted her horse, nudged him in the side with her foot, and rode off into the forest back to the castle. After making her way through many trees, she finally made her way across the stone bridge that led to the Dunbroch castle, her home. She passed the gates, went through the village, and headed for the stables so Angus can rest. She looked around and saw that some were busy making the castle in top notch condition, as they heard about the arrivals coming to their castle. After settling Angus in the stables, she went into the castle and made her way to the great hall where her parents were making preparations while her three triplet brothers were causing their usual mischief. Merida went up to her parents, who were talking to a few people.

"Hello mom, dad" Merida said to them. They both turned to see their daughter.

"Ah Merida there you are" her mother said to him "We were just about to wonder if you weren't going to come back in time"

"How could I be late for something like this" Merida told her mother and father "I haven't seen Uncle Stoick and Hiccup in years, and I am definitely excited to meet some of his friends"

"Aye you can put it at that" Fergus said with a smile "It's been forever since we've seen Stoick and an even bigger surprise since they are bringing one of their dragons"

"Yes, I've been baffled myself since we heard that dragons could be trained, and I am delighted to see my brother again" Elinor said "But I'm not sure if bringing one of the dragons is a good Idea"

"Mom its fine" Merida said to Elinor "I've seen the pictures of Toothless and learned a bit about him, I think it'll be fine"

"Did you remember to get the boys?" Elinor asked. Merida, quickly looking around to find her three little brothers, saw them over by the stone wall, eyeing a plate that had pastries on it; one of them was being lowered down while the other two were holding the rope. Merida walked over to the table just as one of the triplets was about to grab one of the pastries. They quickly noticed their older sister and knew that they had been caught.

"Come on you three" Merida said to them. All three of them sighed as the triplet attached to the rope was being pulled up, after that, they came down the stairs. Merida looked down on them and only smiled "I know you all want them, but just wait until your cousin gets here" she whispered to them "and besides, there will be something more for you three than just treats" the triplets smiled at their little sister, since they haven't seen their distant cousin, and since they didn't know what surprise he was bringing. Suddenly, they all heard a guard coming in from the giant wooden doors, the family stopped and turned to the guard, who was catching his breath before he was gonna say what he was gonna say.

"Your majesties" The guard said to them "We just saw a ship coming into the loch, it looks like a Viking ship" After the guard said that, the family knew that their guests would be arriving soon.

"Come on then" Fergus said to everyone "Off to the docks" then, many people started to follow the king and queen while Merida turned to her brothers.

"There here" Merida said with excitement "Come on now boys, we don't want to miss our arrivals coming here" they all ran out of the castle to catch up with their parents, as Stoick and Hiccup would arrive at the docks soon.

Meanwhile, out in the water, there was a small boat that was carrying a large group of people. Hiccup saw by the edge of the boat with Toothless at his side as he threw another piece of fish at the dragon's direction, which he caught in his mouth. Other people on the boat were his father Stoick, Astrid, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, Snotlout, and several other Vikings that decided to come along for the visit. Hiccup was excited for this day, since he hasn't seen his cousin in so long, and it would be nice to introduce his friends to her, especially Toothless. After he tossed another fish into his friend's mouth, he went to the front of the deck, where his father and the others were manning the ship.

"Hey dad" Hiccup said to his father "Are we almost there yet?"

"Almost" his father replied "As soon as we get into the lock, we'll be near the docks in no time"

"About time" Snotlout said complaining "We have been on this boat forever; why not just get there on our dragons?"

"Snotlout, most of these people have never seen a dragon before, if we did bring them along they might scare them"

"Hiccup's right" Stoick said to the group "Toothless is fine, but the other dragons could be seen as a sign of aggression"

"I agree also" Fishlegs says "Besides; Gobber promised that he would take care of them while we're away, Meatlug especially"

"I just can't believe we get to see your other family" Astrid said to Hiccup.

"Yeah" Hiccup said to her "It'll be nice to see my cousin Merida again, plus I haven't seen uncle Fergus and aunt Elinor in a while either"

"I'm excited to meet your cousin" Astrid said "I heard she's really fun"

"She is" Hiccup said to her "I know that the twins will like her brothers as well"

"I'll bet" said Astrid "Are you sure bringing Toothless along was a good Idea?"

"Don't worry about it" Hiccup said to her "He's more intelligent than the other dragons, and besides, I'd like to show him to the people and do a few tricks or two" Hiccup gave a little pat the head to Toothless as he said this. Suddenly, the lookout from the front of the deck looked down on the crew and faced Stoic.

"We're entering the lock now" the lookout said to the chief "And I can see the docks"

"Keep heading for there" Stoic said to the lookout "We're almost there"

"Ugh, finally" groaned Snotlout. The twins stopped fighting so they could get a look, and Fishlegs came over as well to take a look. Hiccup smiled as he turned to Astrid and Toothless.

"You guys are gonna enjoy this" Hiccup said to his friends as they neared the docks.

**Alright, so the next chapter will show what happens during the visit, and at the end of the next chapter, and show a few problems that Hiccup and Merida's families are facing, followed by a discovery that they feel can use to solve that problem. I had the Idea that Hiccup would write and send letters to the Dunbroch family about the events in the movie, some of the shorts, and the episodes from the TV show to make it interesting. I hope you guys like the story so far, and don't worry, after a chapter or two it will start to kick into high gear. Please review, until next chapter.**


	3. Greetings and Celebration

**Alright, so when we last left off, Hiccup, his dad, Toothless, and Hiccup's friends are arriving to Castle Dunbroch for a little family visit with Merida's family. I hope you guys have liked the story so far, it may seem slow at first but in the next couple of chapters, it will start to kick up a notch. Please review, and enjoy.**

Chapter 2

Merida, her brothers, and the rest of the family had made it out to the docks where they saw a small Viking ship coming into the docks. Merida was all in all excited as her cousin Hiccup was on that ship. Once the boat was at the docks, the gate plank was placed onto the ship, and Stoick was the first to get off the docks, Elinor went up to her brother with a smile on her face. The siblings went up to each other, and a hug was exchanged between them.

"Stoick, it's absolutely wonderful to see you again" Elinor said to his brother.

"Same to you Elinor" Stoick said "It's been a long time" Hiccup came off the gate plank and saw his uncle Fergus as he just finished hugging Stoick.

"Hey Aunt Elinor" Hiccup said with a smile.

"Ah Hiccup" Elinor said "I do say you have grown since we last saw you"

"Well, I'm still that little guy like I was before" Hiccup said to his aunt. Then, Fergus came and gave a greeting to Stoick before turning to Hiccup.

"Hey uncle Fergus" Hiccup said.

"Hiccup, good to see you lad" Fergus said giving him a man hug, which Hiccup felt like he was being crushed. As Hiccup was trying to gasp for a little bit of air, Fergus let go of his nephew and saw that he may have squeezed him a little too hard.

"Sorry there lad" Fergus said to him.

"No it's fine" Hiccup said to him "You always were strong like my dad is". Finally, Merida and her brothers came down the docks and looked at Hiccup. Merida smiled, happy to see her cousin again.

"Hiccup" Merida called out to her cousin. Hiccup saw her coming and got up; she walked over to him, and hugged each other.

"Hey Merida" Hiccup said to her.

"It's so good to see you again" Merida said.

"Same to you" Hiccup replied. The triplets came over and tackled him, Hiccup laughed as the triplets were fooling around to him.

"Alright boys that's enough" Merida said as she nudged them off of Hiccup and allow him to get back on his feet. Then, Hiccup's friends came coming off the gate plank and walked out onto the docks to where Hiccup was "So, are these your friends?" Merida asked him.

"Yep" Hiccup said to her before turning to his friends "Guy's this is my cousin Merida"

"Nice to meet you all" Merida said to them. First Astrid introduced herself to her, saying how it was nice to meet her, then Fishlegs who was trying to make a proper introduction in front of the princess, but Merida didn't mind. Then it was Snotlout who tried (unsuccessfully) to make an impression and hit on her, but she just ignored it. Finally, the twins introduced themselves, and Merida knew that judging by their behavior, they sometimes get into usual fights and squabbles like brothers and sisters always do. The other people on the ship came off, and were greeted by the family and inhabitants of the castle. Suddenly, a loud growl and purr came from the bottom deck of the Viking ship, Hiccup, his friends, his dad, and the royal family knew that it was Toothless, while everybody else was wondering where this noise was coming from.

"You think you should show us your friend in their?" Merida said with a smirk, knowing who it is.

"Yeah, I think It's about time" Hiccup said with a smile. They all turned around to the large group of people that were beyond the entrance to the docks "Everybody, I have brought a special friend of my here with us"

"Indeed" Elinor said "As you all know my family has been receiving letters from Hiccup that revealed something extraordinary. He said that the dragons that they have been fighting for years have stopped after he learned that dragons can be trained"

"That's right" Hiccup said "So I have brought the dragon that help me made that discovery. Everybody, I would like to present to you, my best friend, Toothless" he then turned around to where the boat was, put his hands up to his mouth, and made a night fury dragon call towards the ship knowing that he would answer to that. Suddenly, a black creature came soaring out of the ship and did a few flip up in the sky, causing so of the scots from outside of the dock area to take a few steps back, before coming back down to the docks, revealing a black night fury with a saddle on his back and a prosthetic piece on his tail. Merida and her family were amazed by the creature while the villagers and guards looked at Toothless in awe, as they had probably never seen a real dragon before (even though they might have heard of one) murmuring amongst themselves about what they thought about the dragon. The maid Maude was breathing heavily, worried that the dragon would pounce and looked like she was going to faint, while Merida was comforting her telling her that she has nothing to worry about. The dragon just looked around his surroundings, then back to Hiccup who was beside him.

"Hey bud" Hiccup said to his friend "Don't worry, they'll understand" he turned to the crowd, whom some seemed a little nervous of the dragon "Its ok, he's not as wild as most dragons, he means no harm to anybody here" some of the villagers soon let out a brief sigh as what Hiccup said was true.

"Alright then everybody" Elinor said to the crowds "Now that our guests are here, I believe it's time we show them the way to the castle" The other villagers complied and all headed up the hill back to the castle. Merida and her brothers walked alongside Hiccup, his friends, and Toothless and knew that they were going to have a great time here. When they made it to the castle, Astrid and the others looked at it in amazement and admiration, as the huts back on Berk weren't as big as this one.

"Wow, look at this place" Astrid said to Merida "It's amazing that you live here"

"Yes, it's nothing" said Merida "It may be a castle but it's always been our home, now come on then, there is a lot to show you" They walked across the stone bridge towards the gates of the castle. They entered the large doors and made their way through the small village that was around the group. Once they made it to the great hall, the young Vikings looked inside the great room in awe and interest. They saw that it had a lot of history to it and that this really was a grand place.

"Wow, look at this place" Astrid said in amazement.

"Yeah, look at all this culture to it" Fishlegs said, fascinated by the castle as well.

"I told you that the castle would be amazing" Hiccup said to her. As they all gathered to the center of the room right next to the royal family, Elinor turned to the crowd of people in front of them.

"Now that we're all here" Elinor said to the crowd "Let the festivities begin" the crowd then let out a series of cheers as the party was about to start.

About 30 minutes later, the party was already in full swing. People were talking amongst themselves and having a good time, Stoick was having some conversations with Elinor, Fergus, and some of the others, The boys were up to their mischief as usual sneaking for the tray filled with pastries, and Merida was showing Hiccup and his friends the forest that she usually rides through, her horse, and everything else that she is found of. Merida was currently doing an archery lesson with Astrid, and the female Viking was impressed by her marksman skills.

"Wow, you're very good at this" Astrid said while competing in an archery contest against Merida "Even I can't shoot as good as you"

"What can I say" Merida said to Astrid "I've been into this since I was wee little, so it takes practice" Suddenly, they heard Fishlegs come over.

"Hey guys" Fishlegs said to them "Hiccup's gonna show off his riding, wanna watch?"

"Definitely" said Merida "I would love to see the dragon in action". They put the bows down and started walking across the fields back into the castle walls.

"I knew that he would do something like this" Astrid said to Merida.

"What'd you expect?" Merida said "We've never seen how fast a real dragon can fly"

"Yeah, I guess you're right" Astrid said back to her "I promise you, when we do our best trick competitions at home, they're always the best"

"Really?" Merida said. Astrid looked back to her newfound friend.

"Really" she said to her with a smirk. They walked back into the castle grounds, where people were gathering around a spot on the castle wall where Hiccup was getting the saddle ready on Toothless and getting ready for flight.

"Alright guys" Hiccup said to the people "I saw that the best place to do this is the loch so prepare to be amazed, you'll all see just how fast Toothless can go and the few tricks that I have in store for all of you"

"Good luck out there" said Astrid. Hiccup smiled at her and his cousin as he positioned Toothless into flying position with everybody watching.

"Alright bud, you ready?" Hiccup asked his friend. Toothless looked up to his rider and snorted in reply "Alright, let's show them what you've got" the dragon took a pounce position and then dashed up into the sky.

**(Music: watch?v=u3pNVBgMyME, 1:07 – 2:01)**

Everybody ran towards the castle walls so they can see what they were doing as they were flying in the sky. Merida smiled and her brothers were just as amazed by this as she and the other villagers were. In the sky, they saw Hiccup soar through the air on Toothless as they quickly maneuvered their way through some rocks and above the water. Then, to really make things better, Toothless flew up higher into the sky

"Okay bud you ready" Hiccup said to his friend. Then, on cue, he let his prosthetic leg out of the heel lever, and the two started to drop from the air, both of them right next to each other during the fall. Everybody down below looked worried, as if something had gone wrong and that something bad was going to happen, but then, just as they were about to reach the water, Hiccup quickly got back on the saddle, reattached his prosthetic to the connecting rod, and swooped back up into the air before Toothless delivered a few plasma blasts into the sky for a little dazzle for the people.

"Wow" Merida said in awe.

"Like I said" Astrid said to her "They're still the best" As soon as the grand tricks were over, Toothless landed in the middle of the courtyard where the two of them were met with cheers and clapping from the villagers, as well as Merida and her family as they were all amazed. Hiccup looked down to Toothless and smiled to him.

"Nice work bud" Hiccup said to the dragon "It looks like we've got our work cut out for us" the dragon purred in reply as the people were coming over to them to shake his hand and comment on his performance. Merida ran over to him with a smile on her face.

"Hiccup, that was amazing" Merida said to him "I bet another time you could give some of us a ride"

"Maybe next time" Hiccup said to her. Then, after Hiccup and Toothless got the attention, the villagers went off to their homes and Stoick, Hiccup Toothless, and the rest of the Vikings went inside the castle with the royal family. They were invited to stay in the castle with the family for the entire visit, and they were very grateful for their offer. As they were walking through the castle to where their guest rooms were, Astrid walked next to Hiccup with a smirk on her face.

"Hiccup, you were right" she said to him "This place is nice, and your cousin is real fun"

"I told you" Hiccup said to her "And we'll be able to enjoy this for the rest of the stay"

"Yeah" Astrid said "Looks like we will and I bet Toothless will also" she saw the dragon was sleeping out in the great hall which Merida and her father gave permission for since Toothless was one of their guests. "So I'll see you tomorrow then"

"See you tomorrow" Hiccup said to her before she went off to find her room. Hiccup accommodated himself to his room, reminiscing on the perfection of the past day, and didn't know what the next days of their stay would be like, but he figured that they would be a fun time.

**Alright, so I hope you guys liked the chapter. I wanted to show some of the time spent during the visit, then in the next chapter, something will be revealed and another thing will be found that will set the rest of the story in motion. I added in some interaction between Merida and Astrid because I thought that they would make good friends, and as the story goes on, more characters will be introduced (some will be OC's, and some from each of the films that this story crosses over). Please review and I will update as soon as possible, so until next time.**


	4. Problems and Discovery

**Alright guys, so in this chapter, there will be a situation revealed that is affecting both families and a discovery made by Merida, Hiccup, and the rest of the Vikings that will start a new adventure. I do want to take time and say that I needed to come up with some way to get the story going, and as soon as it does, that is where the rest of the story will be set in motion. I'm glad that you guys like my story so far and am glad that you are taking interest in it. So enjoy, and review when you're done.**

Chapter 3

In the past few days, the visit to the castle had been a fun time. Each day there would be something new for Merida to show the groups (including the doors to the castle attic which Merida said that only members of the royal family were allowed up there), the triplets were causing twice the amount of trouble with the twins, Hiccup gave some rides to some of the village kids, and Toothless was getting most of the attention and was the talk of the kingdom. Merida noticed that Elinor was feeling a little tense, as if she heard some news and was waiting to tell it. Merida was a little curious about it, as she had never seen her mother so nervous about telling big news, but she just let it slide.

It was a bright and sunny day; Merida and Astrid were sitting by the targets just finishing a round of archery, and the triplets could be heard doing something with the twins. Hiccup saw Astrid and Merida and walked over to them.

"Hey guys" Hiccup said to the girls as he walked over to them. They both got up from lying down and turned around so that they could see him.

"Hey Hiccup" They both said at the same time to him.

"Do you mind if I join you guys?" Hiccup asked them.

"Sure" replied Astrid before Hiccup lied down and rested with both girls.

"Sure is nice out huh" Astrid said.

"Indeed" Merida said "I hope you guys have been enjoying the visit so far"

"Yeah we have" Astrid said "You're pretty fun to hang out with, and your family is pretty nice"

"Thank you" said Merida "I know you guys are having a great time, and I bet Toothless is also"

"Yep" Hiccup said to his cousin "He has been getting quite the attention lately ever since we first got here"

"He certainly has" Merida replied. Hiccup and Astrid noticed that something was wrong since Merida was sounding like she was feeling nervous about something, like a secret she was trying to keep.

"Hey Merida, what's wrong" Astrid asked her curiously.

"What? Nothing is wrong, nothing at all" said Merida "Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's just that I've seen you notice something from a far distance, and that means that there has to be some sort of problem" Astrid said to her.

"Alright" Merida said "It's just that, I've been seeing my mum acting nervous for a bit, as if she was trying to keep some big news a secret, which she barely does since she always tells my family big news that has just reached us"

"She's probably waiting for the right time to tell us" Hiccup said to Merida "It may be good, or it may be bad, we don't know yet, but sooner or later she'll probably tell what's on her mind"

"Yes, I guess so" Merida replied. The three of them noticed that the afternoon sun was going down and that they were starting to get hungry "I'm starving, you guys hungry"

"Yeah I am" Hiccup said.

"Me too" Astrid replied. Toothless let out a little snort as his way of saying that he was hungry as well.

"Alright then" Merida said to them "Let's get back" so they all got up and headed back to the castle where their next meal was being prepared.

About thirty minutes later, everybody was at the feast tables in the great hall for lunch. All of the teens and Merida were at one table socializing, as were the king, queen, chief, and other adults at another table, the triplets were sneaking in some treats after they didn't want to eat their haggis, and Toothless was near the teen table eating a basket filled with fish that was set up just for him. While everybody was eating, Merida was still wondering what it was that her mother was feeling worried about, then, she started to hear some soft argument coming from the adult table; the rest of the teens could hear it too. It wasn't too loud, but what the adults were talking about was enough to know that this was a serious problem.

"Why won't they just accept it" Stoick said to Elinor.

"We don't know Stoick" Elinor replied to her brother.

"Aye" Fergus added in "We've been telling them that it's all fine but they're still not convinced"

"Who's not convinced about what?" Merida asked her parents, some of the adults looked over to the teen table and knew that now would be a good time to tell them.

"Well, a few days ago, after Stoick and the others arrived here, I have been receiving some messages from the other clans" Elinor said to them.

"They knew about the visit?" Merida asked her mother.

"Apparently they did" Elinor said to them.

"Well, what did the messages say?" Hiccup asked his aunt "And what is it that they won't accept?"

"They won't accept the Idea of Vikings visiting our territory" said Elinor "My brother became chief of Berk many years ago, and when he did, the other clans agreed that this was an act of peace between the clans and Vikings, they understand that he is my brother, but that doesn't mean they feel comfortable about Vikings in the highlands"

"Even after all these years of my dad taking responsibilities as chief they don't think we should be coming here?" Hiccup said.

"Well, they have been feeling uncomfortable about it" Stoick said "I was making my own decisions when I became chief, but they still don't feel comfortable about this alliance with Vikings"

"Yes, to make matters worse, they learned that dragons could be trained now and now there is tension about what the dragons might be used for" Elinor said.

"But we'd never do that" Hiccup says out loud "They should know that"

"I know that son" Stoick said to Hiccup calming him down "They said that if we Vikings keep entering Scottish territory, then they may think about terminating the alliance and go to war with us"

"What!" Merida and Hiccup said at the same time, obviously shocked and worried by this "But they can't do that" Merida said.

"We're not sure if they can either" Elinor said to her daughter "But they probably just don't see my brother as my family member anymore" Hiccup and Merida looked at their parents, and then looked at each other worried, as were the others. They feel that because of the clans they won't be able to see it again, and they were so focused on it that they didn't feel like eating anymore, even though they had finished most of their meal.

Later that day, Merida, Hiccup, and Astrid were walking down the castle halls, talking about the situation that was currently at hand.

"Unbelievable" Hiccup said as they walked down the hall "The other clans don't think that we can be trusted, they don't see how we see the dragons and they don't think we're family with you guys"

"I know" Merida said angry as much as Hiccup was "We may not be able to visit each other ever again. Why won't they just see that you and Uncle Stoick are part of our family?"

"Maybe we need something that shows them that you are family" Astrid said to them.

"What do you mean?" Merida asked Astrid.

"Well there are many things that represent a family, like pictures, artifacts, artwork, valuable items, something that represents an event in the past or a struggle that you went through. I know because there are some things back on Berk that we use to represent our families" Astrid explained to both of them.

"There are many valuables and items that we have" Merida said to Astrid "But how can we find one that represents both parts of our families?" suddenly, they heard a series of clattering noises coming from the other end of the hall, they looked at each other and decided to follow the source of the noise to see what it was. After walking down the corridor, they saw Fishlegs in front of the door to the stairs that led to the attic, and they noticed that the door was a crack open.

"Fishlegs, what are you doing out here?" Hiccup asked his fellow Viking.

"Uh nothing" Fishlegs said with a hint of nervousness. He then started to attempt making some kind of animal sounds through the crack in the door. The three of them looked at each other and Merida sighed as she knew that somebody was up in the attic.

"Alright, where are they?" Merida asked Fishlegs, knowing that he couldn't keep up the act any longer.

"Who?" Fishlegs said while still trying to make warning signals, but Merida, Hiccup and Astrid already opened the door and already were going up the stairs. Fishlegs soon gave up and caught up with them from behind, once they reached the top of the stairs, the four of them found Snotlout, the twins, and the triplets rummaging around the attic.

"What are you guys doing up here" Hiccup asked them.

"We got bored so we're just checking this place out" Snotlout said to them.

"But how did you even get in here?" Merida asked them. She soon remembered that members of the royal family had access to the attic and she turned to her brothers with her hands on her hips, the three boys looked at her, and one of them pointed to Snotlout, whom Merida turned her attention to.

"I asked them if they could open the doors for us" Snotlout said to them.

"We're not supposed to be up here" Hiccup said to the three Vikings that were in the room "So let's just get out of here"

"Yeah, yeah we will" Snotlout said "After we're finished taking a look at this stuff" he picked up a vase that was on the floor and started to study it.

"I'm serious you guys" Hiccup said to them "Put that vase back and let's go"

"No, I found it I get to look at it" Snotlout said before continuing to look at it. Astrid was irritated by this and started to grab the other end of the vase.

"He said to put it back, so put it back" Astrid said to Tuffnut.

"You're not the boss of me" Snotlout said trying to yank part of the vase out of her hands. Soon, both of them started fighting, trying to get the vase out of either person's hand. Merida and Hiccup went over and tried to calm both of them down, but it was no use as the two of them were still arguing at each other. Suddenly, Ruffnut and Tuffnut ran over and shoved into them, Tuffnut into Snotlout and Ruffnut into Astrid. The two fighters stopped, but the vase that Astrid was trying to get Snotlout to drop was thrown across the room where it hit the stone wall and shattered to pieces that fell onto the floor.

"See what you did" Astrid said to Snotlout in anger.

"Me, it was the twins that shoved into us" Snotlout said trying to defend himself. As the Vikings were getting into an argument, Hiccup was looking at the broken vase, wondering how much trouble they would be getting into. Then, something caught his eye, a rolled up piece of paper on the floor that was obviously in the vase for quite some time.

"Hey wait" Hiccup said to the group to calm the argument "What's that over there?" he walked over to where the shattered vase was and bent down to pick up the piece of rolled up paper, the others went closer to him as he came up with what he had found. Hiccup unrolled the piece of paper to reveal some kind of map, and saw that it showed the country of Spain.

"It's some kind of map" Astrid said. Hiccup turned to Merida, who was curious about this map as the others were.

"Did you or your brothers know about this?" Hiccup asked Merida.

"No, I don't think my mum or dad have ever showed it to us or talked about it" Merida replied "In fact, I don't think we've even seen this map before" They all continued to look at the map.

"There's an inscription on here" Hiccup said. He took a deep breath before reading it out loud: _ Two families forever at war, a love unlike any before, buried deep in the desert sands, by their very own hands, are two gemstones that represent more_

"You guys heard Gemstones right" Snotlout said, hearing the part in the inscription that mentioned two gemstones.

"Sounds like a treasure map to me" said Tuffnut who was thinking what Snotlout was thinking. After looking at the map and thinking about it for a minute, Hiccup turned to Merida.

"I think our people have met before" Merida said to Hiccup "Should we tell our parents about this?"

"Yeah, we should" Hiccup says to her "Because I think we've found the solution to our problem, come on guys" Hiccup got up and rolled up the map, and everybody else followed him down the stairs of the attic to explain to the king and queen what happened, and show them what they have found.

**Alright, so I hope everybody enjoyed the chapter, the next one will explain a little bit about the map and will have the group set off to find the gemstones. As always, please review and I will update as soon as I can.**


	5. The Legend, Decision and Memories

**Ok fellow readers, so when we last left off, Merida and Hiccup had learned from their parents that the other three clans are thinking of separating from the alliance due to distrust with the people of Berk (since many years before, they were at war with them before Stoick became chief) and Merida, Hiccup, the triplets, and the other Vikings discover some kind of map. This will reveal a little more info about the map, but that's all I'm gonna say for now. I hope you review once you're done, enjoy the chapter.**

Chapter 4

In the main hallway of the castle Dunbroch, the adults were sitting at one of the tables, discussing and socializing. Elinor and Fergus were talking to Stoick about several things, but they didn't know where Merida, Hiccup, or the others are. Then, the teens and the triplets started to come out from upstairs and call to the adults.

"Mom, Dad" Merida called out to her parents. The three adults heard them as they were coming down the stairs and waited for them as they came towards the table.

"Merida, Hiccup there you are" Elinor said to them "We've been wondering where you were"

"Well, we caught the twins and Snotlout rummaging around in the attic" Hiccup said to his aunt.

"The attic?" Elinor said surprised "They didn't take anything did they?"

"No, they said that they were just looking around because they were board" Hiccup replied.

"They didn't convince the boys to help them did they?" Fergus asked them.

"Oh believe me, they did" Merida replied to her father "But don't blame the boys, it was Snotlout's Idea in the first place"

"Well, thank you for letting us know" Elinor said to them.

"Thanks Aunt Elinor" Hiccup said "But there's something else"

"And what would that be?" Elinor asked them.

"Well, Snotlout was looking at a vase, and Astrid tried to make him put it down" Merida explained to her mother "While they were trying to struggle for it, the vase slipped and broke, but there was something inside it that I don't think you've shown me or the boys before"

"What did you find" Fergus asked his daughter.

"We found this" Merida said. She then revealed the rolled up piece of paper that was from the vase, and rolled it open in front of their parents so that they could see the map. After taking a good look at the map, Elinor gasped as she noticed what the map led to; even Fergus and Stoick were surprised by this as well.

"Is that what I think it is" Stoick said to Elinor.

"I believe so Stoick" Elinor replied "I can't believe they have found it"

"What is this map" Merida asked "What exactly does it lead to anyway?" Elinor looked at Fergus and then back at Merida and the boys. She took a deep breath before she finally spoke.

"Well Merida" Elinor said to her daughter "We haven't told you this story before, and I think now would be a good time to tell you"

"Alright then mum" Merida replied "Go ahead" the Vikings, Merida, and the triplets all took a seat near one of the tables while Elinor began to tell them the story:

"_A Long time ago, in the early days of the island of Berk and the clan of Dunbroch, a young man from Berk secretly met with a young woman who was from the royal family, who was feisty and rebellious. They both fell in love, but decided to keep it a secret from both of their families since they were at war with each other. One night, after going through many battles and seeing many losses, the two lovers decided to run away together to the country of Spain to escape the ferocious conflict. They slipped away in a boat, and arrived in the country, where they decided to start a new life there. After some time, they both felt guilty about leaving their families behind, and decided to make two gemstones, one representing Dunbroch, and the other representing Berk. They planned to take them back to their homes and show them to both of their families so that peace could be brought to both sides, but the village was attacked and both of them died. So the people buried both lovers with the gemstones in the village they settled in deep in the desert of Spain, and a map was made and sent to the Dunbroch clan where they decided to keep it safe, along with a message to both lands that spread the sad news of the two lost lovers. They are still buried in what's left of the village, where it is believed that someday, descendants from both families would find these and bring peace to Dunbroch and Berk_"

Once Elinor was finished with the story, the teens and the triplets were amazed by the story, Merida didn't know that there were two people from the different sides that made something that would represent peace between Berk and Dunbroch long before Stoick became chief.

"So the woman is sort of like me then" Merida said to her mother.

"Indeed she was" Elinor replied.

"Why didn't you tell us about this?" Hiccup asked.

"Well, we felt that you weren't quite ready to hear this story when you were younger" Elinor said to them.

"Also that if any enemies or bandits heard that the legend was real and that a map exists, they would believe that it is a treasure that will make you richer than any man and would be rushing to get their hands on the map" said Stoick. Hiccup and Merida were thinking that finding the gemstones was the key to keeping the alliance strong, and the other teens wanted to help too since they wanted in on this little adventure as well, even though the road might be dangerous, but they liked it that way.

"Can we see that map back for a second" Hiccup asked Elinor.

"Of course Hiccup" Elinor replied "I see you've decided to put it back then" instead of answering, Hiccup rolled out the map to look at it and the other teens were looking at it in interest as well.

"Alright" Hiccup said to his cousin and friends "Where do we start?" Elinor, Fergus, and Stoick knew what they were thinking and didn't feel so comfortable about it.

"Now wait a minute" Elinor said to Hiccup and Merida "I'm not sure if this is a good Idea, it may be dangerous"

"We know, but think about it" Hiccup said to his aunt "We may already be peaceful to each other, but the other three clans don't trust us. If we found those gemstones, we could prove to them that we are still family and they'll understand us"

"Yes" Merida added in "Maybe they will even make them part of the alliance, a new clan, how great would that be?" The three adults tried to find the right words to protest, but she had trouble thinking. Astrid, who was sitting near the queen, knew what they were trying to think of and knew that she would lose"

"No offense your highness" Astrid said to the queen "I know you're trying to come up with a defense, but they're gonna go after this no matter what any of you say"

"Well I suppose your right lass" Fergus replied "I say let them go, they will make our families proud, and have a story or two to tell when they get back"

"Alright Fergus" Elinor said "I sort of feel that they should do this as well"

"Wait a minute mum" said Merida "You're letting me go on this journey?"

"Yes" Elinor replied "After the bear incident and how you protected me, I know that you are quite capable of handling yourself"

"Thank you" Merida said to her mother "I mean it"

"You are very welcome" Elinor said to her daughter

"Alright, it's settled then" Stoick said "They can set off tomorrow morning; we'll give the group supplies and a boat that will travel to the country"

"Thanks dad" Hiccup said. Soon, everybody got up out of their chairs and continued to do their usual thing, while the adults sent so servants to prepare the group's ship for tomorrow.

**(Music: watch?v=tAtmMZYB3kQ&list=PL0EED0B87E6761099&index=6, 0:00 - 1:35)**

Later that night, Merida and the others were sitting by a small hill outside of the castle, hanging out, admiring the stars, talking, telling jokes, and just hanging out. Merida had her horse Angus out with them, and Toothless was there as well. The moon was full and shining bright in the sky, which gave enough light for the group to see in the dark area.

"Man it sure is nice out" Hiccup said.

"Yes, it sure is" Merida said to her cousin.

"Tell me again why we don't have a fire again?" Tuffnut asked "I mean it is dark out"

"The moon is full tonight" Fishlegs added "And it's giving us full light right now"

"He's right" Merida added "Besides; we're probably going to be in front of a camp fire a lot while we're on the road"

"Hey Merida" Hiccup said to his cousin.

"Yes" Merida replied.

"Remember the last time my dad and I visited you and your family" He asked her.

"I remember" Merida said "You came here after my father lost his leg to see how he was recovering. You were always wondering what happened and your dad told him that he just tripped and fell"

"Yeah, and we were the ones that pulled that bear joke on the maid" Hiccup said to her.

"Maude, yes we were both on the floor laughing and our parents assured Maude that it was just a prank" Merida said.

"You guys actually did that?" Astrid said.

"Yeah, it was pretty funny" Hiccup said to his friends, some of them smiled and chuckled at the thought of it. After sharing some memories like the family time and play time they spent as children, Merida looked at Hiccup and noticed that he was feeling a bit nervous.

"Hey Hiccup, what's the matter?" Merida asks him. He turns to his cousin and lets out a sigh.

"Well, it's just about the trip" Hiccup says "I do feel nervous about it. But l am excited about it, I mean; we got you with us, another adventure"

"If you're excited about it as much as I am, then why are you feeling a bit nervous?" Merida asks him.

"It's just that… I'm just nervous about what we may encounter" Hiccup said.

"Believe me Hiccup" Fishlegs said "I'm on the same page as you are"

"I heard that many bandits and outlaws have been attracted to the area" Astrid said.

"Nothing we can't handle" Snotlout says, trying to make an impression.

"We can bring as many supplies as we need" Astrid said "And, we can bring some weapons in case we encounter any trouble along the road"

"I know I will definitely bring my bow just in case" Merida said "Luckily I learned Spanish from my mother during some of my lessons so that would be a little bit useful, and we can bring Angus and Toothless along with us" She turned to Hiccup, who was looking more reassured "See Hiccup, everything will be fine. After all, you and I are cousins; we always look out for each other" Hiccup smiled at that as the two cousins looked at each other, then their friends, and then their two faithful companion. Then, a voice was heard calling out from the castle.

"Merida, Hiccup!" Both teens recognized that as the sound of Elinor "It's getting late, come inside now"

"Alright, we'll be in there in a few minutes" Hiccup replied to his aunt "Alright guys let's go back inside"

"Yes, we've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow" Merida added as she got up. Merida smiled as she walked alongside her cousin, as Toothless, Angus, and the rest of the Vikings followed them back to the castle to get some rest, waiting for their big adventure to begin.

**Alright, so that's the end of the chapter, the next one is where it will start to go into full swing. As a suggestion from a fellow author, I decided to include a little scene that shows Merida and Hiccup share a little bonding time as cousins before setting off (in this case, they share what the last visit was like and some fun times that they had (I hope you liked the little track I put in to add the tone of the chapter). It took me a while to come up with some good dialogue for the part where they were hanging out on the hill since I wanted it very detailed and sound like it would fit each character I hope you guys liked the chapter; I have been getting a lack of reviews lately so if any of you reading this could PLEASE leave more reviews for me then that would make me feel a lot better. I will update as soon as possible, until next time.**


	6. Setting Off, and a drifter named Django

**Alright my fellow readers, so here is the next chapter for the story. I'm going to include an OC introduction near the end of the chapter but for now, we are just going to focus on Merida and the group. There will be another song included near the end (with lyrics for this one) so keep an eye out for it. I hope you all like the results, and enjoy.**

Chapter 5

The morning had finally come, and Merida, Hiccup, and the rest of the group had gotten a good night sleep and were ready to begin their long journey to and across Spain to find the two gemstones. After eating a full breakfast, the group went off to pack their own things while some of the guards were preparing their ship. Merida brought along her bow and quiver filled with arrows, and was bringing along Angus so that she wouldn't have to get a different horse when they would arrive in Spain. Hiccup brought his journal, a knife, and other things that he may need. The rest of the group brought along with them a telescope, a couple of battle axes and swords, a compass, and Hiccup and Merida decided to keep the map with each other since they were in charge of the journey and felt that the value of the map was important to their families. After eating a full and wholesome breakfast, the group grabbed their things and walked out of the castle and down the hill that led to the docks, while Merida went to go get Angus from his stable and ride him down to the ship.

When they arrived down at the docks, they saw Fergus, Elinor, Stoick, and the triplets waiting for them, with Merida arriving by the dirt road on Angus and Toothless waiting at the docks besides Stoick. Merida got off her horse and the two cousins looked at their family members and then saw the ship that was all set up for them. The ship was a trading ship that was larger than the other ships, which would come in handy since it had large amounts of packed food in wooden crates (apples, loaves of bread, meat, fish, etc.), a few buckets of fresh water were placed on the side of the decks, a weapons crate that would hold the weapons being brought was on board, and a large sail was posted in the middle of the ship. Merida and the others made it to the docks where their families members were and looked at the king and queen.

"That's some ship" Hiccup stated.

"We made sure that you all had everything that you needed for the journey at sea, as well as when you are in the country" Elinor stated "I also have some Spanish money in case you needed any" one of the guards came over and handed out several bags that were filled with Spanish coins that were given from the ships usual trading businesses that were made in the past.

"Mind if we explore the ship for a bit before we depart?" Merida asked.

"But of course lass" Fergus replied "Go on ahead" The teens smiled and walked up the gate plank into the ship they looked around the massive deck that had all the supplies they needed and there was even a few more things that were below deck. Underneath, the found two stables, one for Angus and one for Toothless, hammocks for each teen, compartments to store their belongings, and a few other things that were necessary for the trip. After exploring the ship, the group went up and looked at the adults with satisfaction on their faces.

"This ship is amazing" Astrid said "Thank you for letting us use this for the trip"

"Any time young lady" Elinor replied.

"Let's put our things down in the ship before we say goodbye" Merida said to the group. Suddenly, Merida's brothers came up from behind their father and were looking at their sister in a worried way, as if she may not come back. Merida smiled as she looked down on her younger brothers, and knelt down to their size and looked at each one of them.

"Don't worry boys" Merida said to them "I'll be back safe and sound, and I'll tell you all about it" Merida's brothers smiled as they got together in a group hug. Merida's parents and Hiccup's group looked and saw how much the three brothers will miss her.

After everything was all packed and the two animals were in their stables, the teens started to say goodbye to their loved ones before they begin to set off on their journey. Merida was shaking hands with her uncle Stoick while Hiccup and his friends were saying farewell to the king and queen and thanking them for the stay at the castle. After that, Merida went over to her parents while Hiccup went over to her father.

"Goodbye dad" Merida said to her father.

"Goodbye Merida" Fergus said "Bring back a story to tell when you get one"

"I'm sure that I will dad" Merida said "It might be greater than other stories you've told me" her father let out a chuckle, and then, Elinor came up to her. The mother and daughter looked at each other for a while, since their relationship has improved since the bear incident, Elinor had given her more freedom, and even more choices for her to make.

"Merida" Elinor said to her daughter, trying to find the right words "Just… be safe"

"I will mom" Merida said to her "I promise you" after the goodbyes were exchanged, Merida and the others got onto the boat that was ready to depart for a long voyage to Spain. The ship started to move, and they waved goodbye to their loved ones one last time as the ship departed from the loch to the vast ocean.

For the next week, the entire group traveled on the boat throughout the treacherous waters, going south to reach their destination. They were mostly excited about making it to the country. Throughout most days on the journey at sea they would usually catch fish, socialize with each other, check and see how Angus and Toothless were doing, and studying the map so that they would know where to look. They faced the sea every day, stay down under in case of storms, and plan what to do when the first arrived. One day, it was hot and sunny out, the breeze was calm as were the waves, and there was not a thing to do on the ship. Merida was down below deck, giving Angus his usual oats, and Hiccup was feeding some fish to Toothless. Astrid was carving a piece of wood with a knife, Fishlegs had his face buried in a book that was nearby, the Twins were squabbling like they always do, and Snotlout was looking more bored than anyone else on deck.

"Is anybody else bored? Because I sure am" Snotlout moaned out to the group.

"It's not the first time that you've been bored" Astrid muttered with a smirk. Snotlout however heard this and moaned as he got up.

"We've been stuck on this ship for over a week now and we still haven't made it" Snotlout yells out in frustration "I'm starting to think that the map might be a fake"

"I doubt it Snotlout" Fishlegs said "It has the ancient writing on it and we all decided to go on this journey to help them" referring to Merida and Astrid.

"Yeah, we're doing this for family and Merida is Hiccup's family, which always look out for each other" Astrid said.

"Whatever" Snotlout says to them "If these gemstones are real then I'll regret what I said. I just hope that we get there sooner or later"

"Don't worry Snotlout" Merida said to him "We'll get there sooner or later. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, one of the lookouts on the deck is going to say…"

"Land Ho" A voice from above deck stated, Merida stopped when she heard this and smiled. Soon, excitement crept over all of them.

"See, what did I tell you" Merida said in excitement. She got up from where she was sitting and went up the stairs that led to the top of the deck to get a look at their destination and the others got up to see for themselves.

"We made it" Fishlegs exclaimed.

"Finally" Snotlout said feeling that the wait was finally over.

"It's about time" the twins said at the same time. Hiccup turned to his friend Toothless and opened his stable.

"Come on Bud" Hiccup said to his friend "Let's see where we've turned up" Toothless was excited and both human and dragon followed the others up to the deck. When they got up there, they saw a small Spanish port in the distance that they were getting closer to, which is where they will most likely land at, and get more supplies for the trip, since they had used up some of their supplies while they were at sea.

"Alright everybody" Hiccup said to get everybody's attention "Get your things out from below deck to have when we arrive at the port, once there, we can bring the stuff we need out, refresh our supplies and see if there is anything else we need" Everybody nodded and went down to get their belongings out and get ready. As they were getting ready, the two cousins looked at each other a smiled.

"It looks like our journey is just getting started" Hiccup said to Merida.

"Yes, I bet it is" Merida said to her cousin as she grabbed her bow and arrows out of her compartment and followed everybody else to prepare to land at the port town.

Meanwhile on a dirt road out on the edge of the desert that was near a cliff out to the sea and near the port town, a stranger was riding on the back of a brown haired horse through the hot, scorching weather.

**(Music: watch?v=IAooXLAPoBQ)**

_(Django!)  
Django, have you always been alone  
(Django!)  
Django, have you never loved again  
Love will live on, oh, oh  
Life must go on, oh, oh,  
for you cannot spend your life, regretting_

His name was Django, and like every young traveler, he was just lost trying to find what he was looking for, in fact, he had been trying to look for that thing for a while now. He was about a 6-footer who appeared to be 20. He was wearing a brown wide brimmed, side-curved hat to keep the sun out of his face, a white dirty collar shirt with short sleeves, brown wool pants, and brown leather boots.

_(Django!)  
Django, you must face another day  
(Django!)  
Django, now your love has gone away  
Once you loved her, oh, oh,  
Now you've lost her, oh, oh,  
but you've lost her forever Django_

One thing that was at both sides of his hip were two weapons in a separate holster that appeared to resemble a canon but was smaller, had a trigger like a crossbow, made to be almost the size of a hand, and had a revolving barrel that holds up to six shots (in this case, the shots are small, metal balls). He had a bag on the saddle that had many provisions such as some food, water, ammunition, money, and a few other things.

_When there are clouds in the skies, and they are grey,  
you may be sad but remember that love will pass away  
Oh Django, after the showers the sun, we'll be shinning _

As he was riding slowly across the desert, he took something that was out of his pocket, and kept his fists clutched to it, thinking about that horrible event nine years ago, after thinking about it; he put it back in his pocket and stopped the horse to get a good view of the town that was just ahead of the road, and figured that this would be a good place for him to make a stop.

_First you loved her, oh, oh  
now you've lost her, oh, oh,  
but you've lost her forever Django_

Django rode down the dirt road and through the gates as he entered the port town. He rode through the streets as ships carrying goods, resources, spices, and other valuables were coming in and trades were being made between customers. He turned his horse to the side of the rode and made his way to a bar that was nearby.

_When there are clouds in the skies, and they are grey,  
You may be sad but remember, that love will pass away  
Oh Django, after the showers the sun, we'll be shinning  
Django! Oh Django  
your loves gone, oh Django._

Django then parked his horse right near the front doors to the bar, and walked inside to get himself a drink and some rest, unaware of a ship that was stopping near the docks that had a special cargo on board.

**Ok, so that's the end of the chapter, I hope you guys liked it, and I hope you thought my OC was cool. I had the Idea of giving him the name Django as it was the name of the main character from the 1966 Spaghetti Western of the same name (which the song in this chapter is from), as well as the recent Quentin Tarantino film "Django Unchained" (which also has the song in it), as well as countless Spaghetti Westerns. I liked the name so much that I decided to give it to him, and as for his hat, I based it off of a country hat that I owned, make it look like a cowboy hat, and the weapons that were described in the chapter are what I imagined as a cross between a Flintlock dueling pistol and a Civil War Colt Revolver, I wanted to make a weapon for the character that would give a western feel to it, but give an old fashioned look to it, and make it look like it would fit in that world. Anyway, PLEASE leave more reviews for me and I will update soon. I do not own the song, and the only thing I don't own from my OC is the name (in case anybody owns it), See ya.**


	7. Arival in the port town

**So here is the next chapter. I'm glad that you guys have been following a reviewing. This port town, which was shown in the last chapter, and will be the setting of this chapter, will be the same one that appears at the beginning of "Puss in Boots" (if any of you have seen the movie), I will include several references to Westerns in this chapter, since the setting is in a bar. I hope you like the results, Enjoy.**

Chapter 6

Merida, Hiccup, and the other Viking teens stopped at one of the loading docks, and the sight that they saw was amazing. Before them was a small but busy town that was bustling with activity, there were trade merchants, travelers, and others that were trading, conducting businesses, or just going about their daily lives. They looked at the town with amazement, but decided to get back to their job that they were here for.

"Alright, so what do we do first?" Hiccup asked Merida.

"Well, first we should restock our supplies and see if we need anybody to accompany us" Merida said to them.

"Alright, that seems like a plan" Hiccup said to her "Come on guys, let's go" Hiccup's friends looked at them and nodded before following them while Merida told one of the crew members to watch the ship. The teens went down and bought any food or water that was needed, with some of the group not being able to understand English, but Merida helped them. Soon, they went over to a carriage area to get a carriage so that Hiccup's friends won't have to walk on the whole journey since Merida had Angus and Hiccup had Toothless. They went up to the clerk that was sitting in his chair. Hiccup rung the bell, which caught the attention of the owner of the store, who turned to them.

"Ah, hola me amigos" the man said "How may I help you today"

"We need a wagon big enough to carry seven people and some supplies" Hiccup said to him.

"Ah si, I know the perfect one" the man said to them "Come right this way" the man led Merida and Hiccup to the very end of the row, to a wagon that appeared to be carried by two horses, had a covering that provided shade from the sun, and was big enough to stock all of the supplies that the group had. Merida and Hiccup looked around the wagon, and after some consideration, turned over to the man.

"We'll take it" Hiccup said to the man. Soon, the wagon was brought up by two horses that were taken out of a nearby stable and Merida paid the money to the man.

"Thanks a lot" Hiccup said to the man as they left.

"Any time amigos, any time" the man said as he waved goodbye to them. Merida and Hiccup rode the wagon back to the group that was right near the ship, who watched them bring in the wagon over to them.

"Alright, looks like we've got everything we need" Astrid said to them "Now all we need is to hire somebody that can act as protection in case we run into any problem"

"Where can we find some protection exactly?" Snotlout asked the group.

"I know that there are some guys like that in taverns or bars" said Fishlegs.

"Good, I feel like getting a drink anyway" Snotlout said, agreeing to what Fishlegs said.

"Alright, let's see if there is a tavern nearby?" Hiccup said. They looked around, until Merida spotted one that was in the center of the town.

"I see one over there" Merida said.

"Alright guys" Hiccup said "Let's check it out" so the group got up and walked their way through the crowd of people to the entrance to the tavern, hoping to find a good man that would help them. Merida and Hiccup were the first to go in, they swung the doors open to reveal a bar that appeared to be two stories high from the inside, had a bar at the end of the room, and various men were at tables all around, talking, and just going about their usual business, which made it pretty lively. Merida chose a table that was right in a small corner of the room, and they all sat down, Astrid went around finding somebody to hire while Snotlout went over to the bar to get some drinks for the group.

After a while, the group was just hanging around, sipping on their drinks that they had gotten, and they saw Astrid coming back to the group while there was an extra drink in front of her when she sat down

"Any luck Astrid?" Hiccup asked her.

"I went around every table, but none of them will take the job" Astrid said before taking a drink of the mug that was right in front of her.

"Did you tell them where we are going?" Merida asked her.

"Yeah, I told them, but they were either too afraid to do it, or claimed that they had other things to do" Astrid said to them. Merida and Hiccup knew that they had a problem, them they noticed that Fishlegs was looking afraid as if he was trying not to look at something in order to avoid it.

"Uh Fishlegs" Hiccup asked his friend "What's the matter?"

"It's that guy over there" Fishlegs said pointing over to another table that was in another corner "He's just been looking at us ever since we got here and it's making me nervous" They looked over to see a young man that was slightly older than any of them with a unshaven face, a wide-brim type hat that they hadn't seen before, and was dressed in a white, short sleeved shirt with brown wool pants, leather boots, and had two strange shaped items made of wood and metal that were in holsters strapped on both sides of his hip. He was looking at the group mysteriously, not saying a word, with his hat covering some of his face, and his legs crossed on the table. He took a sip of his drink that was on his table while he continued to observe the group.

"Don't worry Fishlegs" Merida said trying to calm him down "He's probably just looking at us like some of the men were because they probably haven't seen people like us before"

"Yeah, I guess it's just nothing" Fishlegs replied. Although Hiccup, Merida, and Astrid were feeling curious and nervous about the man, as they didn't know why he was looking at them.

"Who is that guy" Astrid whispered to Merida.

"I have no Idea" Merida replied. Then, they saw that a group of four men were cornering them around the table that they were sitting at. Merida and Hiccup looked nervous and decided to address the men.

"Can we help you?" Merida asked one of the men.

"As a matter of fact I think you can" one of the men said "We saw you come into the port today and didn't help but notice that fine amount of money that you have, mind if we just take a few" The group slowly realized that these men could be criminals and had to act fast.

"Us, what money" Astrid asked trying to fool them.

"Don't play fool with us Senorita" The man said to Astrid and the others "Give us the money"

"No" Merida simply replied.

"I said give it to us" the man said before starting to grab for the bag, but the teens struggled against the group of men trying to get them to leave. When Snotlout resorted to punching one of the men in the face that got on their last nerves. The man pulled out a knife, and held it straight at Hiccup.

"Give me the money you have in that bag, and I promise that you will walk out of this place unharmed" the man said to them, still pointing the knife at them.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" The young man in the corner said to the men. The group of muggers slowly turned to the man's direction and faced him dead on.

"And why should I not?" The man asked him sarcastically.

"Because I'm not sure you should be messing with people like them" the man replied "Or people like me" The group of men looked at each other and then at the young man at the table.

"Watch your toungue boy" the man said to the stranger "From the way you're talking I'd say that you're asking us for a challenge"

"Could be" the stranger said. The men moved away from Hiccup and Merida's group and moved to where the stranger was sitting. The teens were watching this and were waiting to see what was about to unfold.

"I think you've picked the wrong day to challenge me and my boys" the man said to the stranger.

"No, I don't think I've picked the wrong day" the stranger said "I think it's you and your boys that have picked the wrong day to face me" the stranger slowly got up and faced the four men, who saw that he was lowering his hand to his weapon that was at the side of his right hip. Silence filled the room as the men faced the stranger and Merida, Hiccup and the other teens were watching in curiosity. Suddenly, the four men reached for their hips to pull out their knives and the stranger pulled out the weapon and quickly pointed it at the men before a spark of light came from the weapon, and the first man immediately collapsed to the floor, the other men decided to advance on the stranger for killing their leader, but the stranger was faster, and slammed on the hammer on the back of the weapon, allowing to rapidly shoot the attackers, causing them all to fall to the floor dead. Smoke came from out of the weapon that he was holding, and the people in the room, except Merida and Hiccup's group, just turned away from the scene and went back to their usual thing. The stranger then twirled the weapon around in his hand before he placed it back in his holster; he slowly started to walk away from his area, and turned to the bar tender.

"Sorry about the mess" the stranger said to the man before tossing a coin in his direction as a way of paying for the mess made, which he caught in his hands. As the stranger was walking away, Merida, Hiccup, and the rest of the teens were both surprised and shocked by what had just happened. Seeing how well that stranger could fight, they felt that he could provide good protection for the group.

"Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?" Hiccup asked the group.

"I think we are" Astrid replied to him. They all got up from out of their seats and followed the stranger who was already walking out of the doors. Unknown to them however, an Outcast Viking was watching the whole thing unfold, and even caught a glimpse of the map that was in the bag during the rustle, and ran off through the back door, to rush back to tell his boss, Alvin the Treacherous. Also, there were two cats, one orange haired wearing a Clavier hat and boots, and the other a female tuxedo cat, were looking at the scene in interest, who looked at each other, thinking of what to do next.

Meanwhile outside, Merida and Hiccup, along with the other Viking teens, had gotten outside and were looking for the stranger that they could hire.

"Where did he go?" Astrid asked to the group.

"Hey, is that him over there" Tuffnut said pointing to the stranger riding on a horse. They decided that now was their chance and walked fast to catch up to the stranger.

"Hey wait a minute" Hiccup called out to the young man. The stranger heard this and turned around to see the group that he was standing up for earlier in the bar.

"Oh, it's you guys" the stranger said to them "What do you want?"

"Well, we have been looking for somebody to hire for protection for a little journey that we are taking, and when we saw you take on that group, we thought that you would be perfect" Merida said to him. The stranger looked at them and thought for a minute.

"I appreciate your offer" the stranger said to them "But I'm not sure if a little teenage road trip is worth any protection" he was about to ride off until Merida stopped him.

"Wait, our trip is going deep into the desert, in Madrid" Merida said to him. After he heard the name of their location, he slowly turned around to face the, questioned by where they were going.

"Madrid is a god forsaken area of the country" the stranger said to them "Whatever you are all looking for down there it better be important"

"It is" Hiccup replied "Something that's buried that we need to find" After the stranger exchanged a few looks with each of the group, he decided that if going into a dangerous territory to find something valuable is important to them, he might as well take the job so that they won't end up getting killed.

"Alright, I'll take the job" the stranger said to them "We'll discuss the rest when we find a hotel to stay at for the night, what are your names"

"I'm Hiccup" Hiccup answered him "This is my cousin Merida and our friends Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut"

"So what's your name?" Astrid asked the stranger.

"Django" the stranger replied to them.

"Alright Django" Merida said "We have some things we need to take off our ship, do you mind"

"Not at all" Django said to her "One of you will go with me to find a hotel; the rest of you will get your things"

"Thank you" Hiccup said.

"And also, when we get to the hotel, tell me more about what you're after and why" Django added to them.

"We will" Hiccup said "I'll go with you" Django nodded and the two went off looking for a hotel.

"Alright then, let's get our things off the ship and onto the carriage" Merida said to the group. They all nodded and headed off to get their things off the ship while Hiccup and Django went to look for a hotel to stay for the night.

**So that's the end, the two cats I won't reveal until a little bit later in the story (several more chapters) and that Outcast Viking that appeared and Alvin the Treacherous being mentioned was part of the TV series "Dreamworks Dragons: Riders of Berk" (for those who don't know) the character will appear a little bit in the next chapter, as well as another character from the series. Anyway, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please review, since I haven't gotten any at all and I need more. I will update as soon as I can, so until next time.**


	8. Hotel Ambush

**Ok then, here we are with the next chapter. So last time, the group had arrived in the port town and ran into Django (whom they hired as their protection for the journey). I wanted to include some action scenes, there may not be a lot in this one, but it will come soon, and Alvin the Treacherous from the "Dragons: Riders of Berk" TV series will appear in this chapter, as well as a few other characters from the show and from the other movies that this story crosses over. I don't know where most of my readers are, because I haven't gotten a lot of reviews lately, so please review when you're done. Enjoy.**

Chapter 7

It was a calm and breezy night, but the port town was no less lively. It has been a while and took a lot of help, but Django was able to help the group retrieve their things from the ship, and Merida was able to get Angus out of the ship, same with Hiccup getting Toothless. At first, Django seemed a bit uneasy at the sight of a dragon, as Toothless was, but Hiccup calmed him down and reassured him that he is a friend. They parked the wagon and Angus in front of the hotel while Hiccup told Toothless to stay at a certain distance. The group was now at the hotel restaurant, after putting their things in their rooms, and Django was sitting with Merida, Hiccup and the rest of the group, as they explained to him the reason for their little expedition. The gunman listened to them in interest, and was surprised to learn that these people were of royalty. After they had finished talking to him about it, Django looked at them, interested in the job and knowing how important this is.

"Alright, so let's get this straight" Django said "You two are both from two royal families, and the lost gemstones were made by your ancestors that you need to find, so that they can represent peace between both of your families"

"That's about right" Merida replied.

"So all those legends that people here talk about are true" Django said.

"Why, do you not believe it?" Astrid asked him.

"No it's not that" Django said to them "I use to listen to this story when I was younger, in fact; I think a lot of people around these parts have heard of this story before"

"So you'll help us" Hiccup said to him.

"If these legends are really true then I will help you" Django replied.

"Why are we even hiring this guy anyway?" Snotlout asked out loud "I bet we can probably handle this area ourselves"

"Don't be so sure" Django said to them "Madrid is one of the most dangerous and lawless areas in Spain. If word gets out about a map that leads to a legend, then Bandits, outlaws, killers, pirates, and hardened criminals would follow after us to get their hands on it. They would think that this would be just another treasure hunt. And if a bandit that I'm after gets out, he may follow us, and that would give me the perfect opportunity to take care of him"

"A bandit that you're after" Merida asked curious, the others were curious as well, as they didn't know he had someone he was after "And who would that be?"

"His name is Marcos Cortez" Django explained to them "He is the most ruthless, dangerous, psychotic, and feared bandit and assassin in Spain"

"I think I've heard about him from some merchants" Fishlegs said to the group.

"What does look like anyway?" Hiccup asked him.

"I have an old wanted poster right here" Django said searching his bag for the paper. He took out a rolled up piece of paper that was a wanted poster, and placed it on the table, unrolling it in front of the group. The picture reveals a man, in mid-forties with dark hair and a small mustache, his hair was short, and judging by the look of his face, which had a small but visible scar across the side, they saw that this man was not one to be messed with.

"He doesn't look that tough" Snotlout said "I bet I can take him with my bare hands"

"I'm not sure if that's smart" Django said to them "He is known for killing most of his victims, sometimes leaving one alive with or without a scar or wound to tell the tale. Even if he is sent to prison, he has escaped a number of times with the help of his gang"

"Well, he should be one to avoid" Hiccup said.

"But what did this guy ever do to you?" Tuffnut asked "Why are you even after him"

"I don't feel like talking about it" Django said to them "It's too long of a story anyway. We should get to our rooms; we need some sleep for tomorrow"

"Good Idea, it's probably getting late anyway" Hiccup said. So the group got up from out of their chairs and walked past the restraunt to their rooms.

Meanwhile, outside of the port town, a group of Outcast Vikings that were on dragons were looking over the town from a far distance on a dirt hill. One of them in the center was their leader, Alvin the Treacherous, the most feared enemy of Berk, especially Hiccup and his friends, on top of his whispering death. Along with Savage, Alvin's right hand man, and Mildew, an old man who used to live on the island of Berk, until his despise of dragons led him to betray the people of Berk and become the outcast's new dragon trainer, riding a Deadly Nader with his pet sheep Fungus right behind him.

"Do you think they are even there Alvin?" Savage asked his boss.

"Oh I'm sure they're here" Alvin replied "That soldier told me that they were there and that they have the map to the lost gemstones"

"Well, I bet they won't mind if we borrow the map from them" Mildew said sarcastically "And by borrow, I mean take"

"Alright then" Alvin said agreeing to this "Outcasts, we ride" they all cheered as they flew off into the port town. They arrived in the tow late at night and landed in the port area of the town, which frightened some people as some hid in their homes and shut the doors and windows. The group got off of their dragons and made their way to the hotel that was down the road. They made their way through the entrance of the hotel and walked to the hotel manager, who looked frightened out of his wits as the Viking came over, and looked down on the scared man.

"How m-may I help you gentlemen?" the manager asked sounding scared and shaky.

"We're looking for a group of kids" Alvin said to the man "One skinny with brown hair and a vest, and the other a girl with a green dress and wild red hair"

"Ah yes" the manager said still sounding scared "T-they're on the second floor, room 310 -312, they are sharing each room"

"Alright then, we're going to pay a visit" Alvin said as he and his boys were climbing upstairs. Unknown to them, Django heard the voices coming from downstairs and quickly got up.

"Ugh, what's wrong" Hiccup said as he was getting up.

"Looks like we've got some company" Django replied. Hiccup realized that there were intruders coming for them, although he didn't know who they were. He went over to look out of the peephole of the door, and saw his enemy Alvin the Treacherous with a group of Outcast Vikings including Savage, and knew that they had to leave immediately.

"We have to go" Hiccup said to Django "Keep an eye on the door; I'll get Merida and the others up so we can get out of here.

"You got it" Django said to Hiccup. He got his guns out of the holster that was on the table and aimed at the door in case they already were waiting for them while Hiccup went over to Merida's side.

"Merida, wake up" Hiccup whispered to his cousin while quietly shaking her. Merida let out a groan and was slowly waking up with her hair all messy.

"What is it" Merida said with a moan "What's the matter?"

"We have some company" Hiccup said to her.

"Who are these 'guests'?" Merida asked him.

"Outcasts" Hiccup replied. As soon as Merida heard that word, she remembered how in some of Hiccup's letters that he sent her in the past, he had told him about his encounters with Alvin the Treacherous, the leader of the Outcast tribe, who wanted to learn how to fly dragons, first by taking the book of dragons, and then by capturing Hiccup himself, for his own sinister purposes. She quickly got up and made her way to her bow and arrow and aimed at the door as she saw Django aim his guns at the door.

"How are we going to wake the others?" Merida asked whispering "They're in separate rooms"

"I'll make some shots when they come up here as a warning" Django replied "First wait till they come up, answer to their calls so they know that we're here"

"Why, are you crazy?" Hiccup asked not believing in the Idea.

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing" Django said to him before giving a wink. They waited until they heard footsteps come up the stairs until the sound stopped in front of the door.

"Well Hiccup" Alvin said through the door "Are you in there" Django looked over to Hiccup and nudged his head over as a way to respond to Alvin.

"Yeah Alvin, we're here" Hiccup replied from the room so that Alvin can hear him.

"Well, it's been a while" Alvin said with a smirk "One of my boys told me about that map you have"

"What map" Hiccup said trying to fool him.

"Don't play dumb with me Hiccup" Alvin said "I know that you have the map that leads to the two lost gemstones, and if you don't come out there and hand it over, then my men and I will come in there"

"If you opened that door then I think you would regret doing it in the first place" Django said. Alvin was a little curious by who this other person was and proceeded to ask him.

"Who is this?" Alvin asked through the door.

"My name is Django" Django replied "And I am this group's hired protection. Now if you just walk away now and leave, I promise you that you and none of your men will get hurt" The Vikings simply laughed at this, as did Alvin and Savage, thinking that he was just bluffing.

"Alright then" Alvin said "Some of my men are coming in there" he nodded to one of his men that were right beside them that was carrying an axe. The Viking with an axe slowly walked over to the front of the door holding the axe, preparing to chop the handle and bust into the room. Just as the Viking was about to bring the axe down, a barrage of shots came flying out through the door and hit the Viking, killing him and pushing him back to the railing and falling off. The other Vikings, including Alvin were shocked by this, but knew that they had to get that map.

"Move in there" Alvin said to his men. They busted their way through the door, only to find an empty room and an open window. Django, Merida, and Hiccup were on the side of the hotel building, Hiccup and Merida went over to the window to one of the rooms to get the others up, which they probably were, and Django went over to the other window to get the others up as well. Hiccup and Merida ended up in a room where Fishlegs and Astrid were asleep while Django ended up in the room where Snotlout and the twins were. They roused the group up, and got their things, Astrid and Fishlegs were easy while Snotlout and the twins were a lot more difficult, but the shots that Django made earlier got them awake.

"Alvin followed us here?" Astrid asked Hiccup.

"Yeah" Hiccup said "And for some reason Mildew is with them too.

"Well, I don't want to stay here any longer to find out what they're gonna do to us" Fishlegs said.

"You're right, let's go" Astrid said. They went over to the door and opened it to leave the room. Astrid heard somebody and turned to the other end of the hall to see an Outcast standing right close to them. The Viking charged, but just before he was about to reach them, the door to the room next door opened and hit the Viking in the face, causing him to stagger backwards and fall off the rails.

**( watch?v=UlAmUVSI57Y&list=PLAD44D3E30D2B9F26&index=9, 1:32 - 2:23)**

Django looked out of the door to see what Snotlout had done then turned to Astrid and Hiccup.

"Hey" Django called to them "This way" some of the group followed Django while Merida gained cover from behind and shot an Outcast down with an arrow, Astrid jumped down from the railing, catching a rope that slowly ascended her down to the floor below her and caught up with the others. As they were running, Outcasts tried to shoot them down with their crossbows, but mostly missed as Django fired his shots at them while the others went to go fetch the wagon, Angus, and Toothless. As they were running, Hiccup accidentally bumped into a man on the streets and his bag fell and most of the things were on the ground. As Hiccup was picking the stuff up, he noticed that some people were looking at the map that was partially rolled up. Hiccup grabbed the map so no one else would take a look at it and quickly placed it back in his bag.

"Hiccup" Astrid called out "Over here" Hiccup looked and saw that the group had already gotten on the wagon, Merida and Django were already on their horses, and Toothless was waiting for him. So Hiccup ran as fast as he could to get onto Toothless. Soon, the group rode off as fast as they could as Astrid snapped the reins for the horses pulling the Wagon and the same with Merida, Hiccup (although Toothless could only trot so that they wouldn't be ahead), and Django as they snapped the reins to their animals and rode off as fast as they could away from the hotel when the Vikings attempted to shoot from the distance but missed as the group rode away into the desert.

**Alright, so that's all for now, I was thinking about doing a prison escape scene featuring Marcos escaping a small prison with help from his gang, but I've decided to put that in the next chapter since I don't want to make this one any longer. So I hope you guys liked it, I had trouble finding a track for the hotel escape scene, so I just picked that one, I hope you don't mind. Alvin the Treacherous, Savage, and Mildew are villains that appear in the "Dragons: Riders of Berk" TV series so I don't own them, although I do own Marcos Cortez (which is a villain I made up that includes traits of villains I have seen in several westerns). So I hope you guys review before you leave, I will update as soon as possible.**


	9. Escape and News Spreading

**Hello there readers, so here we have the next chapter. The first part will focus on a prison escape scene that I was able to make up and then shift to Django and the group on the road and at one camp site. The prison escape will include a reference or two to spaghetti westerns, most notably "A Fistful of Dollars" and the prison escape scene in "For a Few Dollars More" (in case there are those that have not seen the movie, just giving a heads up). Anyway, please review when you're done reading, and enjoy.**

Chapter 8

It was still a bright day out in the desert. A group of men riding horses while bringing another were riding their way to a small prison in the desert. The group of men was the members of a gang that belonged to Marcos Cortez, the most notorious bandit and assassin in Spain. Their leader had been captured just three days ago, and he had been thrown into the small prison so that he could be kept an eye on. The gang stopped on a hill that was overlooking the prison, and decided that since there were few guards at the post, this would be the perfect time to strike. They slowly moved down the hill while taking out a rope from a bag that was in one man's bag that was the biggest member of the gang. The men threw the rope that was attached to a claw up to the wall to climb. A few guards were patrolling the walls until they heard the sound of men climbing up the wall.

"Hey, did you hear that" said one of the guards.

"Eh, it's probably nothing" the other guard said to him.

"I'm sure that I heard something down there" the first guard said.

"If you think there is then go check" the second guard said to the first guard. The first guard shrugged and slowly walked over to the edge of the wall to take a look, until suddenly, he was dragged off the edge, disappearing. The other guard, shocked by this, went over to where the soldier was, and looked down to see an empty rope hanging on the side of the wall. He was about to turn around until two hands came up and snapped the man's neck. The hands belonged to one of the gang members and grabbed one of the keys from the dead guard and ran back down the stairs to meet up with the other gang members. One of them took the keys and put it in one of the locks that was the entrance to the prison holding cell, the walked past cell after cell until finally, they stopped at one that was of interest to them. Inside was one cell where a man was lying on the bed with a sombrero covering his face, next to a prison mate who was awake and looking at the gang members. One of the gang members opened the cell and went inside, and the man lifted the sombrero off his face to reveal none other than Marcos Cortez; he smiled as he got out of his hammock and gave the sombrero back to his prison mate. He got up as the gang walked in as one of the members gave him his pistol that had two barrels, each holding one round that can be fired one at a time once then reloaded. Marcos then turned to the prison mate who had the sombrero on his head now, and looked at him with an evil smirk on his face.

"Adios… Amigo" Marcos said with a Spanish accent. He then raised his gun and pointed it at the prison mate, with one shot, the prison mate fell to the floor and Marcos put the sombrero on his face, covering it so that nobody would see the face. With a smile on his face, Marcos turned to his gang and gave a quick nod; they smiled and went out of the cell, with him following from behind. Several guards had heard the commotion and came running down to take care of the problem, only for them to be shot by crossbows. The prison inmates seemed glad by this and started making sounds against the metal bars and shouting, hopefully so they can let them out, the gang did get the keys and got them out, but once they did, the gang members stabbed them with their swords and shot them with their crossbows until they were dead on the floor. The gang continued to spread this throughout the prison, killing several guards while also killing the other prisoners as well, Marcos even killed a few guards or prisoners himself with the few shots that he had in his gun. After some time, the gang had left every guard and prisoner dead in the now deserted prison outpost. Marcos smiled, admiring the fine work that his men had done until one of his gang members went up to him.

**(watch?v=fKIYPGAmcQ0&list=PL5FA0FC4CE3FC78B9&index=5)**

"I see you were able to find me again" Marcos said to the gang member.

"You know we always know where they may take you to boss" the gang member said to his leader. The gang member turned to another member.

"Hey Julio, did you bring the used weapons in?" the man asked him.

"I sure did" Ramon replied "They're in this bag"

"Good" the man said satisfied "Move all the bodies into the right position and place the weapons around each one of them and in their hands. Remember they died fighting amongst themselves" the men nodded and went off to do as they were told to do. Marcos looked around satisfied until something caught his eye, and wounded prison guard that was still alive but barely with an arrow wound in his chest trying to escape. Marcos simply smiled as he pulled one of the barrels into cocking position, aimed at the escaping prisoner, and fired the shot, which hit the soldier from a long distance and caused him to collapse right in front of the entrance to the prison. Smiling, he raised his gun down and walked over to the prison entrance where the soldier was clutching his wounds to try to stop the bleeding. Marcos went over to the wounded soldier followed by another gang member.

"What do you think we should do with this one Marcos" The gang member asked. Marcos looked back at him, then at the soldier.

"Well now that you've called me by name" Marcos replied sarcastically, even though he already knew what he was going to do. He raised his gun, cocked the remaining barrel, pointed it down straight at the dying soldier, and with no words, shot the soldier dead. Once he was finished, he turned around to see the rest of his gang members rearranging the bodies and placing the used weapons near the bodies to make it look like both sides killed each other. Satisfied, he noticed one of the gang members walking over to him as if he had something to say to him.

"Hey boss" The gang member said to him.

"What is it Antonio" Marcos asked him.

"We were able to place the bodies and the weapons around the right way" Antonio replied "And there is something else that you should know"

"What is it?" Marcos replied.

"Rumors have been going around that a group of travelers have a map to the lost gemstones of the two traveling lovers" Antonio explained to his boss "And we think that those legends are true"

"Are you sure that they are true?" Marcos asked him.

"That's what we think" Antonio replied "We heard somebody talking about it when one of our boys was in a bar. If what they say is true, then we may have learned of the existence of one of the greatest treasures in existence" Marcos looked at his boys, and a thought came into his mind, if he was speaking the truth, they may stumble upon the most legendary treasure that has been known by many people. If it was true, he and his boys would find the group that has the map and use it to find the gemstones, and if it wasn't true, they would just kill the group and take anything that they have. He turned to his boys that were facing him.

"Boys!" Marcos said to his group "Finish up the work and let's go. We ride" The boys cheered as the boss addressed them and continued to finish up their work and get the horses.

Out in the far corner of the desert, Merida, Hiccup, Django, and the others were riding through the desert, as the hot and blazing sun shined down upon them from the sky. The Viking teens were in the wagon with Astrid at the reins while Merida, Hiccup and Django were around their animals guarding the outside in case anybody would try to attack the group. Merida looked over to Astrid, who was still busy at the reins.

"How could Alvin know that we were out here?" Astrid asked out loud, feeling curious.

"One of their own must have been in that tavern when we were there, and must have spotted the map" Merida replied to her friend.

"But how did they know we were going to be here in the first place?" Hiccup asked as he took a drink of water from a canteen.

"I guess they had heard of the legend of the gemstones, and when one of their soldiers was at the bar, he must have seen the map and told Alvin about it" Merida said.

"Well, I can bet that news of the map being in your possession is spreading" Django said "It was a good thing that you hired me. Many outlaws, bandits, and criminals will now be searching the entire continent for that map"

"Like Marcos Cortez?" Merida asked him.

"Yeah, and many others as well" Django replied "It's a good thing we're a far distance from any of them, for now"

"I just hope that nobody is following us" Astrid said.

"Come on Astrid" Hiccup said to reassure his friend "We're in the middle of a desert, I doubt that anybody would be following us right now" but unknown to them, the two cats from last night were spying on them from a few rocks that were far away and continued to follow them and stay hidden from the group as much as they could.

As the group had predicted, word about the map in the group's possession had spread too many of the people of Spain, and had caught the attention of a few criminals and outlaws. In one bar, the murderous outlaws and married couple Jack and Jill were listening to a man telling a group about the gemstones from outside.

"Well, seems like those stories are true" Jack said "What do you think Jill"

"Nothin' we can't handle. Besides, if we find those gemstones they will be perfect prize for both of us" Jill replied

"Alright then" Jack said "Let's get moving" the two of them headed off to their massive wagon that looked like a small fortress that was carried by a pack of boars and rode off. At the same time, two people were looking at the wanted posters that had a list of many wanted criminals and outlaws that had a hefty reward on each of their heads. The first figure was a man with short hair, slight build, was wearing a black leather coat and was carrying a shotgun across his shoulder. The other was a woman, with her brown hair curled into a pony tail, wearing black leather vest underneath a corset, and had a crossbow with two racks and a compartment that held the arrows. However these two weren't looking for any common criminal, they were looking for witches, as these two were bounty hunters that specialize in fighting witches. Finally, found one that had the picture of a woman on it, with the sign reading 'Wanted: Vesta, the grand desert witch, for robberies and murder, $ 3,000 reward' the two figures looked at the wanted poster and looked at each other.

"Not likely for a witch to use its magic for crime isn't it Hansel" The girl said to her brother.

"Well Gretel, that doesn't mean we can still go after her right?" Hansel asked her.

"Have we ever run into anything that we couldn't handle?" Gretel asked Hansel.

"You know me sis" Hansel replied "We can pretty much handle witches like these ourselves"

"Alright, let's get to it then" Gretel said. Hansel then took the poster off the wall and tucked it in for later, as the two of them set off on their horses for their latest witch hunt.

Far from the port town, there was a small hut that was made from sand and stone, and had several windows with no glass and a wooden door in the front. A group of witch sisters lived inside that house, ones that were inhabitable in desert environments, they had the appearances of women, but had a few lizards like features. In some areas of their hut, there were piles of stolen gold and treasure that they had taken, and thanks to their practice in black magic, it made their jobs quite easy for them. On a throne that was in the room, was a witch that had dark brown hair, a human face with traces of scales and lizard like eyes, and a light brown draped suit. He name was Vesta, the grand desert witch, and she and her group of sisters had quite the reputation for using their magic for robberies and heists, as they mostly believed that riches will make them powerful. As she was admiring the wealth they had acquired, one of her servants flew in on her broom and stopped right in front of her, as she bowed before Gabriela, she looked up to her.

"Vesta, I have some news" the witch said to her.

"What is it" Vesta said looking down at her.

"I have received rumors that a group of travelers have a map that leads to the gemstones of the lost lovers" the witch replied to her master. When she heard this, she was caught by attention and turned over to her.

"Is that true" Vesta asked the servant.

"Indeed, I believe that these travelers have found the map to the greatest treasure in history, and if we got our hands on it, imagine how much they will be worth" the servant said. The grand desert witch smiled, as they had been stealing money and treasure for a very long time and that this would be their biggest prize to their collection. She got up out of her chair, reached for her want, which she placed in a holster to carry it and turned to her other sisters in the room.

"Sisters!" Vesta called out "I believe we have found our next big treasure for our vast collection" the other witches smiled and knew what she was thinking "Come, we fly" with that said, the other witches grabbed their brooms and flew out of the window to find the group, and the map to the gemstones that they had.

**Alright, so looks like the chase has now kicked into high gear. Marcos and Vesta are OC's that I created specifically for the story, while Jack and Jill are from "Puss in Boots", and I have brought in Hansel and Gretel from "Hansel and Gretel: witch hunters" into the story. I hope you guys liked the chapter, sorry if it was a little long, but the next one will be better, and will have a surprising encounter in store for the group. Anyway please review and I will update as soon as I can.** **See you guys later. **


	10. Meeting Puss in Boots

**Hey guys, looks like news about the map leading to the gemstones is spreading, and we see what new friends, and enemies, the group will make along the way. I'm really glad that you guys have been reading and reviewing my story, hopefully I'll get more reviews from you guys since I've had a lack of them lately. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.**

Chapter 9

After traveling out in the desert all afternoon, the group decided to settle down and find a camping site as the sun was going down and the night became much cooler than it was in the day. The group chose a spot that was right next to a large rock that overlooked the desert, which was also close to a nearby stream where they could get fresh water for their canteens. As soon as they stopped, they tied and fed the horses to a post so they won't get away (except Toothless, whom Hiccup knew that he would never leave) and they set up a camp fire in the center of their camp. Even though it wasn't completely dark out yet, Django and Merida felt that they should stop and get the site prepared so they could last the night. Merida, Hiccup and the others had packed fruit, bread, and meat and fish to roast over the fire, which was lucky for Django since all he had was some bread and crackers he fed to the horses every now and then.

"Man, what a day" Snotlout said.

"Why are you guys relaxed when we were the ones guarding the wagon all day?" Hiccup asked sarcastically.

"Hey that's not true" Tuffnut said "We were watching the cargo. You know one time I mistaken Ruffnut as a barrel" his sister however, heard this, and punched him in the shoulder, disgusted by the comment. They both turned to each other and snarled like they would sometimes do until Merida intervened by pushing the two away from each other.

"Alright that's enough you two" Merida said trying to calm the twins down "It'll be a while before the sun goes down completely so we should send somebody to keep watch outside of the camp"

"I'll take watch" Django replied.

"No It's fine, you don't have to do that" Merida said to him.

"I insist" Django said to her "We've all had a hard day, so I'm just keeping an eye on all of you"

"Alright fine, it's ok with us" Hiccup said. Django nodded and went near the edge of the campsite that was by the wagon, but not before grabbing his guns that were in his holster and cocking one of them into firing position. After he went over there, the teens looked at each other before Snotlout broke the silence.

"Are you sure we can trust this guy?" Snotlout asked the others "I mean, have you seen the way he looked at us at the bar, and those weapons that he uses"

"Look Snotlout, I don't know much about this guy as much as anybody else does" Hiccup told him "And yes I agree that those weapons that he carries aren't like ones that we have seen before, but he agreed to help us, and since we're going into dangerous territory"

"Fine, whatever you say" Snotlout said in an annoyed manner. The group soon shifted their gaze to the sky to admire the setting sun, as well as a few bright stars that were starting to come out. Unknown to them however, the two cats were watching them from the top of the massive rock, the tuxedo cat nodded to the orange cat, who sneaked down into the area while the tuxedo cat watched. As they were admiring the area, the group suddenly heard a small noise, which sounded like a cat purring.

"Am I the only one who didn't hear that" Astrid asked the group as they looked around the area.

"Yeah we did" Hiccup said "It kind of sounded like, purring"

"Probably Toothless" Snotlout said "I mean who hasn't heard him purr"

"I don't think it was him this time" Hiccup said "He never purrs like what we heard" He turned over to Toothless, who was just feasting on his fish in the corner before looking up to them as if they said something. "I think there is somebody here" just after he said that, a sound of feet moving swiftly was heard, and the group turned and saw nothing but the desert.

"What was that" Fishlegs said nervous as some of the group got up and reached for their weapons, Merida reached for a sword bow while Astrid and Snotlout did the same thing. They all looked around their area to stay alert, suddenly, they heard the sound of three swift movements of a sword coming from behind them, and they turned to see a P scratched on the rock.

"You should not be out here amigos" a deep voice with a Spanish accent called out to them from supposedly nowhere.

"Who said that?" Merida called out into the slight darkness that was around them "Show yourself!" They all circled the area as they tried to find this mysterious figure that was supposedly invisible. Merida heard the footsteps coming from behind her; she turned around and swung her sword, only for the figure to do a summersault in the air, going right above the group until he landed a few feet away from them where he was finally revealed. To the groups surprise however, this attacker is not a man, but an orange tabby cat wearing a cavalier hat, a belt that held a small musketeer sword, and two black leather boots on his hind legs as he stood up like a person. The cat took out its sword and moved it into dueling position.

"Fear me, if you dare" the cat said to the group. The teens were surprised by who their attacker, as they weren't really expecting their attacked to be an anamorphic cat.

"You're… a cat" Hiccup said. The cat let out a sigh and knew that these travelers would say that, since some of them may not have heard of who he is. Snotlout and The Twins however, suddenly started breaking down and laughing, as they felt that this would be worth ridiculing.

"Our enemy is a cat" Ruffnut said while laughing.

"Yeah, what's he gonna do, claw us to death?" Tuffnut asked sarcastically.

"Oh a cute little kitty" Snotlout said mocking the cat, which was clearly making him angry.

"I am sorry to tell you this senior, but you do not want to make this cat angry" The cat said to Snotlout.

"Oh yeah, what are you gonna do pat us with your sword?" Snotlout asked sarcastically before laughing again. Then, Puss held up one of his claws and allowed his claws to come out, which for some reason caused Snotlout's pants to fall right off.

**(watch?v=kXYBMRKgHIY&list=PL490961CFF468E40A), 0:50 – 1:36)**

"Oh no, no, no, I will do much worse than that" the cat said with a grin. Snotlout looked down at his now fallen pants, surprised and shocked by this and pulled them back up while trying to keep them up there in an embarrassing way. Then, the cat got into a crouched position, aimed his sights on the three Vikings that had mocked him, and when the time was right, he pounced straight at them. First he landed out Snotlout who was struggling to get the cat off of him while Puss was all over him.

"Get him off, get him off!" Snotlout shouted complaining. Tuffnut went over with a staff and tried to smack him off, but the cat was quicker and jumped off of Snotlout causing Tuffnut to hit Snotlout instead. The cat then jumped onto Tuffnut, and started beating and scratching him as well. Ruffnut tried to tackle the cat that was on him but the cat jumped off and Ruffnut ended up tackling her brother instead. Merida, Hiccup, Fishlegs and Astrid saw this and knew that they had to act. Merida took a swing of her sword straight at the cat, but the cat took out his sword and blocked the coming attack. The two of them engaged in a quick sword fight until Puss knocked the sword out of Merida's hands, which caused it to fly and impale itself in the sand. Hiccup whistled for Toothless who turned his attention to the cat.

"Toothless, plasma blast" Hiccup commanded. The dragon replied and shot out a blast of blue fire from his mouth. Before it hit the spot, the cat jumped into the air, doing a summersault in the air and landing where he first revealed himself, lowering his sword.

"Now you shall prey for mercy from Puss in Boots" he said introducing himself while raising his sword again. Before he could make another move however, a shot was heard and Puss's sword was shot right off of his hand, the cat and the group turned to see Django on the hill with his gun in his hand, which was still smoking, standing there watching, he came down while blowing the smoke away from the barrel of the gun before spinning it around in his hand and sliding it back into his holster.

"Well, I knew that you would be helpful" Django said as he came down the hill.

"Yes, just don't ever do that again" Puss said as he went over to pick up his sword.

"Wait a minute, what's going on here anyway?" Fishlegs asked curious and confused at the same time.

"Well, first off. I noticed that Puss here was following us in the first place, in fact, he's been following us ever since we left the town" Django explained to them.

"So is he one of those criminals that you mentioned would be after us?" Snotlout asked him.

"No, he's no criminal" Django replied.

"Well than why did he attack us?" Snotlout asked.

"It was a test senior" Puss answered "I wanted to see how you would do against someone like me"

"Well you would at least tell us that a criminal like him would follow us" Snotlout said.

"I am no hardened criminal senior" Puss said "I fight for justice, I protect the innocent, and if someone is to insult me let it be clear that..."

"Puss" a female voice with a Spanish accent called out interrupting him. The group turned to see a female tuxedo cat with a belt that had a cat eye shaped decoration on the front, a dagger sheathed in the side and brown high heeled boots came in and put a shoulder around Puss to calm him down "Remember why we're here" The group looked at this female cat with interest.

"Another one" Merida said "So who exactly are you then" the female cat looked over to them, put her hand off of Puss's shoulder, and crossed her arms.

"Kitty Softpaws" The cat replied "I'm his… Companion"

"Softpaws? Why do they call you that" Astrid asked the tuxedo cat. In reply, she held out one of her paws for them to see, and then it fluffed up appearing softer "I see what you mean, they seem pretty soft"

"They're a lot handier than you think" Kitty said to them. Merida and Hiccup decided to cut to the chase.

"So, why are you guys following us?" Hiccup asked Puss and Kitty.

"Django had sent us a message about where you are going" Puss said "You will need a lot more protection senior if you expect to get through this journey. Besides, it would be an honor for me and Kitty to do a helpful act for a family of royalty"

"Well, if you insist on helping us, I believe we could have some more company" Merida said, accepting Puss's offer to help. Snotlout and the twins however, didn't seem to agree to have somebody that attacked them helping them on the journey, and proceeded to start their complaints.

"What! We're bringing him along?" Snotlout started "He attacked me, and I'm not sure if I even trust this guy, or cat, or whatever"

"Yeah, we're with you Snotlout" Tuffnut said "I hate cats" As they continued to launch their complaints, Hiccup and Merida looked at Django and then at Puss worried, but Django just nodded to Puss and Puss nodded back. The orange cat then faced the three Vikings, who were looking at him while complaining, then, he took off his hat and was holding one of the edges with his two hands close together near his chin like a child. Puss's eyes soon grew bigger, and he soon formed an innocent wide eyed expression. Snotlout and the twins complaining slowly died down as they were looking into this cute face, which looked very hypnotizing in some way and softened their hearts. Soon they let out a faint "Awww" which left Merida and the other teens amused by this and at the same time, impressed by the face that Puss could do.

"Does he always do that?" Hiccup asked.

"Sometimes" Kitty replied.

"It's usually one of his defenses" Django said "It can soften his foes hearts, which can be helpful in some cases"

"So I guess that you two are with us now" Astrid said to the cats before turning to the three Vikings "Isn't that right guys?" the three Vikings soon snapped out of their trance and soon stuttered, saying that they agree with the suggestion.

"Alright, it's settled then" Hiccup said. They saw that the sun was starting to go down, and they heard some stomach rumbling.

"I'm starving" Merida said as she felt her stomach.

"Me too" Hiccup said agreeing with her "Alright, let's get some food over the fire" The rest of the teens agreed and started to walk back to the center of the campsite.

"We have fish if you guys want any" Astrid offered to Kitty and Puss.

"Ugh, after being in the hot sun all day, I could use something to eat" Kitty said exhausted.

"Si, I agree as well" Puss added. So, the two cats followed the group to their campfire as the night continued, with the group preparing for the next day, with two new members joining them.

**So that's it for now. I hope you guys liked the scene with Puss in Boots, although I have tried to keep it different from the scene from Shrek 2 as much as possible. I also included the character of Kitty Softpaws from "Puss in Boots" since I like the character and I think that she and Puss make good partners. Please review, I will update soon, so until next time.**


	11. Helping an unseen foe and the Deal

**Ok my fellow readers, so here is the next chapter for "A Fistful of Gemstones". In the last chapter, we saw the group meeting Puss in Boots, at first they but heads, but in the end, he along with Kitty Softpaws joins the group. Fun fact: my OC villain Marcos Cortez is modeled a little bit off of a character from the Sergio Leone spaghetti Western "Once Upon a Time in The West"(1968) named Frank played by an actor named Henry Fonda, as well as actor Gian Maria Valonte in "A Fistful of Dollars" and "For a Few Dollars More". So anyway, please review and enjoy.**

Chapter 10

It was another hot day out on the road. Merida, Hiccup and Merida were riding alongside the wagon, as well as Puss and Kitty, who were on their own horse that they had brought along with them. As they were riding, Hiccup was explaining to Puss and Kitty a little bit about Toothless, telling them that he will not hurt them since he is a trained Dragon. Merida and Django acted as the scouts looking to see if they would find anything that would be seen as a disturbance or trouble. Astrid was at the reins and looked over at Kitty's paws in curiosity.

"Hey Kitty" Astrid said to the cat who was right beside her "What is it that is so useful about those soft paws that you have?" Merida looked over as she was curious as well.

"I used to be one of the most high-ended thieves in all of Spain" Kitty explained to her "My paws are so soft I can steal you blind and you won't even know I was there" she then held up a bag of coins that supposedly came out of nowhere. Astrid, shocked by this, looked down and noticed that a bag of money that she usually keeps was gone, and then looked up at Astrid.

"I didn't even feel you take it" Astrid said amazed by this.

"Like I said, soft paws" Kitty replied with a smirk before throwing the gold coins back to Astrid. Merida chuckled a little bit at this, until Astrid gave her a friendly glare and she stopped. As they were riding down the desert area, Django felt a pinch on his shoulder, which he soon learned was his bullet wound that was located under his left shoulder that he had taken years ago on that tragic and fateful day, the same wound that was removed with some help by people that found him, the ones that helped him find his gun fighting skills.

"Hey, what's the matter" Hiccup asked Django as he had noticed the state that he was in.

"Nothing, just thinking about a few things" Django replied. As they continued to ride, Astrid saw a figure that was walking through the desert in a wobbly way, with a sheep that was right next to him.

"Hey guys, look over there" Astrid said pointing over to where she spotted the man. Everyone looked to where she was pointing, even those that were in the wagon got out and looked.

"I can't see anything through this bright sun and heat" Tuffnut said. Hiccup squinted his eyes a little bit and saw an old man that he had recognized before.

"Is that… Mildew?" Hiccup said seeing who it is.

"I thought he was too old to even find a tree" Snotlout said. Hiccup just ignored Snotlout's comment and turned to the rest of the group.

"Come on guys, let's check it out" Hiccup said. The group agreed and turned to where the old man and his sheep were.

"So you know this man?" Django asked Hiccup.

"Yeah, he used to live on Berk" Hiccup said "Unlike most people, who were comfortable with the peace we made with the dragons, he has always hated dragons and will do anything that will have them off the island. He was recaptured while we were escaping from Outcast island once" As they moved up, they saw that Mildew had his pet sheep Fungus with him, but that was just about it since there was practically nobody else with him. The old man, who looked tired and weak, looked up and saw a group of people, at first he was a little frightened, but appeared to lighten up when he saw Hiccup.

"Ah, hello Hiccup" the old man said as he dusted sand off of his clothes "I didn't expect to see you out here"

"And I didn't expect you to be out here either?" Hiccup said "Why did Alvin bring you along?"

"It's a long story" Mildew said in a tired tone "I need some rest"

"Come on guys, let's get him in the wagon" Hiccup said as he and Merida got off their steeds and went over to help Mildew up, and get him and Fungus into the wagon. Mildew noticed that there were some other people with them and turned to Hiccup.

"I see you have some friends with you" Mildew said to Hiccup.

"We can tell you about them when we get somewhere" Hiccup said. The only problem was that they didn't seem to see any place that they could stop at "Is there any place we can stop?" everybody looked around to see if they could find anything, until Puss saw a building building that was far away, but not too far.

"Senior, I see a stable building over there" Puss said to Hiccup.

"Where?" Hiccup asked not seeing where he was pointing at first.

"Over there, just beyond the hill" Puss replied. Hiccup looked and saw that there was the building; with the sign saying that it has stables, which made Hiccup believe that they could stop there since the animals were getting tired.

"Alright, we'll stop here for now, we need to feed the animals anyway" Hiccup said. The others agreed with him and followed Hiccup and Merida over to the stable house, unaware that there were several Outcast soldiers miles away, waiting for themselves to make their move.

Meanwhile, in Spanish military post that was nearby the town of San Ricardo, one man known as the Comandante, who was in charge of patrolling the town, was pacing in his office back and forth, looking at the old wanted posters of Puss in Boots that weren't all over town anymore. The Comandante was disgusted, ever since the incident involving the giant goose, the people of San Ricardo started to see Puss in Boots as their greatest hero, but the Comandante still saw him as a criminal and a thief, and believed that the people of San Ricardo were blind. Ever since that night years ago when Puss and Humpty Alexander Dumpty supposedly robbed the bank (although unknown to him, Humpty had tricked Puss into helping him) and receiving the three scars on the side of his cheek, he had come to despise the cat whom he referred to as 'Diablo Gato'. He looked outside the glass window which gave a view of the town of San Ricardo, which was not very far away. He felt pity for the town's people of how they now view the cat as.

"These people, when will they see the truth" the Comandante said to himself "That Diablo Gato is a menace, a thief, and now he is nowhere to be found"

"Oh that's not entirely true" a voice said from nowhere. The Comandante turned around and saw Marcos Cortez and one of his men with him leaning by the door to his office "It has been a long time my friend"

"How did you get in here?" The Comandante asked surprised at this.

"That is not important right now" Marcos simply said to him "What is important is what you said about Puss in Boots there. In fact he is somewhere that I think might interest you and some that may interest me" The Comandante knew that this man was not one to be trusted, but decided to listen to what he had to say.

"What is that?" The Comandante asked curiously.

"There are rumors going around that there is a group of travelers that have the map that leads to the lost gemstones of the two travelers" Marcos explained "And I think that cat is traveling with them" The Comandante was shocked, he had heard the legend of the two gemstones, but he didn't know that it could be true.

"Alright, I shall make you a deal" The Comandante said to him "If you bring that Diablo Gato in, I will be able to pay you a handsome reward, about up to 500 worth of gold"

"1000" Marcos said "You know that I prefer being paid higher"

"Very well then" The Comandante said "I will pay you $1000 for bringing back Puss in Boots, although, I am unsure about the rest of the group he is with"

"I will take care of them myself" Marcos said "You just worry about the cat. How many of your men can I bring along?"

"About a dozen" Comandante said to him "But remember, you give me that cat, and I'll let you have the money and the others"

"Of course" Marcos said to him "It is a deal then" Marcos held out his hand to the Comandante, who shook it in reply, and let out a grin which showed his three scars.

"Diablo Gato" The Comandante said to himself after he shook hands "Soon you will be mine"

**So that's it for now, I know it's a little short than my previous chapters but I don't mind. The Comandante character is from Puss in Boots, I wanted to include him as a minor antagonist due to him thinking that he was behaving in a very antagonistic way and that he still saw Puss as his enemy at the end of the movie (even though the rest of the town didn't). Also, the reason they helped Mildew and that he seemed helpless is that in the season finale of the Dragons TV series, he was making a ruse to help Hiccup escape just so he could learn about training dragons, and it was not revealed to them, so I thought of including that as well. Anyway I hope you liked it, please review, and I will update soon. Bye.**


	12. Brief Betrayal

**Alright, so when we last left off, our group had found former Berk inhabitant Mildew out in the desert and decided to stop at a stable house to rest and give Mildew some water, while The Comandante made a deal with Marcos Cortez to bring Puss in Boots to him for a $1000 reward and Marcos would take care of the rest of the group. I will include some more references to westerns in case you guys don't know. Make sure you guys leave a review when you're done and enjoy.**

Chapter 11

The group made their way into the stable house, with Mildew as they brought him and Fungus into the place. The owner had agreed to let them stay for a while, although at first he was shocked to see a dragon with them, Hiccup told him that he had nothing to worry about. The wagon was parked outside, while Angus and Toothless were placed in the stables to be given water, with Angus getting apples and hay while Toothless was given some fish that Hiccup had brought in his bag. Puss and Kitty were resting on a small pile of hay while Astrid and Merida were getting water from the well outside and the rest were with Mildew explaining why they had traveled out here so far, with the old man listening to everything that Hiccup was telling him.

"And after a while, I had been forced to train dragons for their own use" Mildew said to them "Then, they heard the rumors about you and your little group finding a map that led to some gemstones, and they decided to go after it, bringing me along with them as well.

"How did you escape them?" Merida asked when she and Astrid came back with the bucket of water.

"Well, I had been with them one night and when the moment was right, I grabbed Fungus and the two of us escaped out into the desert where I'm sure that they wouldn't follow me by now"

"Well you are safe with us senior" Puss said to the old man. The old man looked at the cat a little confused and Hiccup leaned over to him

"We know it's weird but you get used to it" Hiccup replied. The old man nodded and Merida went over to him with a pale of water in her hands.

"Here drink this, it will make you feel better" Merida said to him lowering it to his face. Mildew obliged to the offer and allowed the tip of the bucket to reach his lips, and drank some water before Merida put the bucket right next to him and petted Fungus on the head a little bit before walking over to give her horse some hay and water. Astrid was feeling kind of suspicious about the way Mildew was acting and felt that maybe he wasn't telling them the whole truth, and Django was feeling the same way.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking" Django said to Astrid.

"I think so" Astrid replied knowing what the problem was. They walked over to the hay piles and turned to Merida and Hiccup who were feeding their animals.

"Hiccup, Merida, can Astrid and I have a word with you guys alone" Django asked the two cousins.

"Sure" Hiccup replied.

"Of course" Merida added. They followed Astrid to a small stable away from the group and turned to them.

"We're not sure if this man is telling us the whole truth" Django said to start off with.

"What, why do you think he would be lying to us?" Hiccup asked him.

"Remember all of those times when he was threatening our dragons" Astrid said "He even had them shipped off the island once after accusing them of destroying the armory once"

"I know it's hard to trust this guy" Hiccup said "But when we were escaping, I owed him my life, and I'm trying to return the favor to him. He was kidnapped by the outcast's and held on their island for I don't know how long"

"Yeah and don't you think that even if he was telling the truth he may have started to side with them" Astrid said.

"I don't know about you two, but he is an old man that needs help, and we are giving him help" Merida said.

"Come on" Astrid said annoyed by this. As they continued to argue, Django started to notice that several group of men were coming up the hill towards the stable house and saw that one man was right in front of a window with a crossbow in hand waiting to strike. The man, who is an Outcast rose his crossbow, aimed it towards the members of the group, but before he could fire, Django whipped out his gun and fired. The shot hit the Outcast and sent him straight to the ground. The shot startled the group as they turned to where Django had fired the shot. Mildew looked nervous at this until he heard a click, and turned to see Django pointing the gun at him.

"Well old man" Django said to Mildew "If your friends stay out in the blazing heat, they're liable to burn up aren't they. Or get shot" The old man looked nervous, and knew that his long act had finally come to a stop.

"Alright then" Mildew said before turning to one of the windows while Django still pointed his gun at him "It's alright lads, they know we're here, you can come out now" soon after that, Outcast soldiers started to reveal themselves to the group. Some of them were poking their heads (and some with their crossbows) through the window, while some entered the room through the front door. The men that came in cleared by and revealed Alvin the Treacherous and Savage as they walked in towards the group. Alvin looked at Hiccup and Merida, and then looked at Django who was still pointing his gun at Mildew.

"Well, I thought that it would take a while for you to fall for it, but it looks like you are a lot smarter than you seem" Alvin said to Django impressed.

"More than you know" Django replied to his comment while still having the gun in his hand. The rest of the teens were confused until Hiccup finally understood what was going on and turned to Mildew.

"You tricked me" Hiccup said to the old man "I helped you escape from that island just so you could learn how to train dragons for the Outcasts?"

"Oh Hiccup, it took you this long to figure it out" Mildew said "I had to anyway, if you would see how they use dragons it would prove how dangerous and wild they really are. You're far too young Hiccup, to see the true nature of these creatures"

"I never should have owed you my live back there" Hiccup said in disgust "You're nothing but a traitor"

"Eh, get use to it" Mildew said "The important thing right now is that we have you all here now, including that lad over there and those two cats" two guard grabbed a hold of Puss and Kitty to make sure that they don't escape, and then Alvin turned over to Django, with the gun still in his hand.

"How did you know we were coming boy?" Alvin asked Django.

"I saw a few of your men off in the distance" Django replied "Believe me, I'm faster than you or any of your men"

"Is that so?" Alvin said curiously.

"I believe so" Django replied "You've got a lot of nerve following us, what is it that you want"

"Just give me the map to the Gemstones and we'll leave you in peace" Alvin replied. Django hesitated for a minute unti an Idea popped into his head.

"Of course" Django replied "I'll just get the map and give it to you and be on our way" Merida and Hiccup were shocked by this as he went over to the bag and rummaged around for it. While he was looking in the bag, Django looked up at Merida and Hiccup and gave them a wink before continuing his search. Although Merida and Hiccup weren't sure what the gunfighter was planning, they felt as if he was playing something with this. Soon, Django took out a rolled up piece of paper and got up, he went over to Alvin, and gave the rolled up paper to him.

"There it is as promised" Django replied.

"Very good" Alvin said with a smile "But if I would let you get on your way, how do you suppose that you will even get out of here"

"Well, that I'm not sure of" Django replied "But those cats over there usually know" The men looked at the two anamorphic cats and started to laugh, thinking that it was all just a joke.

"He is right amigo" Puss said to him "Kitty and I have our ways of breaking out"

"And what would that be?" Alvin asked both cats.

"You know that knife that you have in your pocket" Kitty said to him.

"Yes of course I know" Alvin said before Kitty held out a knife that she had secretly taken with her extremely soft paws.

"I snatched it while you weren't looking" Kitty said with a smirk as she quickly sliced the ropes that were bound to her hands, as well as those that held Puss, and jumped the guards for their swords. Merida quickly took her bow out and fired an arrow, which hit an Outcast, the Viking teens started to tackle the Outcasts and a massive brawl began. Vikings were throwing fists at each other, some hit their targets, while some didn't, and the two cats clashed swords with some Outcasts. Only Merida's arrows were able to knock the crossbows out of the hands of several Outcasts. Mildew got up from the hay pile and was making for the exit to escape and wait outside, but Django saw him leaving and fired a shot. It missed and hit the wall, but that shot was able to trail the old man off before he hit a hanging bucket and was knocked to the floor. Suddenly, gunshots were starting to ring, and both groups looked to see that there was another gang that had followed them to the place, and they too had some guns and crossbows. The battle quickly became more intense as bullets and arrows were flying everywhere. Django saw the gang members come in and fired each of his shots at the attackers that were coming in through the door or windows.

"Fall back" Alvin yelled to his soldiers "We have what we need anyway" the soldiers complied and followed Alvin to the front door with Savage and a few other provided cover fire for their escape.

"But Alvin, what about Mildew" Savage asked him.

"Forget him" Alvin said "Let's go" Savage nodded as he and the others followed their boss outside to their dragons. Hiccup and Merida knew they had to get out as well, and both went to get the horses and Toothless while the others would get their things and drag Mildew's unconscious body to the wagon and Django held off the gang members. After a tense fight, he made it to his horse; as did Puss and Kitty, and they rode off away from the stable house that was not a mess to catch up with the rest of the group.

As the group was recovering from the ambush and attack, Hiccup and Merida were looking upset and worried, as they feared that the map was gone and they wouldn't be able to get to the gemstones without it.

"Great, we just lost the map" Hiccup said worried. Merida then turned to Django, who was reloading his gun.

"Why did you just give them the map!?" Merida asked angrily at him "Now they will get to the gemstones first and we don't even know where they will go.

"Oh, I have a feeling that they won't get to those gemstones sooner or later" Django replied coolly.

"What do you mean" Merida asked confused. Django, said nothing, but instead, took out a peace rolled up paper from his bag and unrolled it so that the group could see it.

"The real map" Django said to the two cousins "Safe and sound" The two cousins were surprised and shocked by this and took the map from Django's hands so they could a look for themselves.

"He's right" Merida said to the group "This is the real map"

"Yeah, with the real symbols, the poem and everything" Hiccup said "But what was the one that he gave to Alvin?" They turned to Django, who looked at the others until Kitty and Puss stated to get what he did.

"You gave them a fake map, didn't you Django" Puss asked.

"Yep" Django replied to them "I was studying that map when they first showed it to me, and a couple of times when you were sleeping, I was making a copy of that map using another map of the country that I had found, but I put the wrong directions on there so that in case anyone catches us, I would give them the wrong one so that they would go the wrong way"

"Wow, even I couldn't pull a prank like that" Tuffnut said impressed.

"At least we still have the map" Hiccup said to the group.

"Yeah, but there is only one thing to figure out" Django said.

"What would that be?" Merida asked him. Django slowly looked and turned to where Mildew was.

"What to do with him" Django said referring to Mildew. They all turned to the old man that almost sold them out to the Outcasts. Fungus was walking over to him as the old man started to regain consciousness and look over to the teens that were all looking at him, some in anger, a few with a smirk, and Toothless just growled.

Minutes later, the group was traveling down the dirt road, with Hiccup, Merida, Django, and Puss and Kitty on their usual steeds and the rest of the group in the wagon. Attached to the back of the wagon, was a rope that was pulling something behind the group. What the rope was pulling was Mildew, who was tied up and had no way of escaping. He could move, but only take small steps as his feet were tied up as well and Fungus was next to him.

"Now just wait a minute" Mildew said from the back trying to reason with them "Let's just talk about all of this, I'm just an old man, you know. I know that what I did was wrong but all things can be forgiven right. Now I don't think that you all would-" Just before he finished, a shot rang out and hit the ground right next to Mildew. The old man was startled by this and turned to see Django with one of his guns out still smoking. The gunslinger turned to the old man who was now in a mix of shock and anger.

"Sorry" Django said sarcastically to him. After that, Django put his gun back in his holster and Mildew's reasoning quickly turned into cursing.

"You evil little brats" Mildew yelled "You'll all pay for this. I hope you end up in graveyards, with all the people you know around them! Cut me loose, cut me loose!" Mildew continued to throw insults and curses until Snotlout gave a pull of the rope to keep him quite as they continued to pull him from behind.

**( watch?v=xyLIl9OkaH4&list=PL8FF0B58AB9C73DDE)**

The group continued to pull Mildew from behind as the day went on. The old man kept waddling as he was tied up until he fell to the ground and ended up being dragged from behind. Meanwhile, from a far distance, Marcos and some of his men were watching them from a stone hill, and Marcos seemed impressed.

"Well, it looks like this group is close than we thought" Marcos said before turning to two of his men "Follow them" the two gang members complied and started to walk down the hill and secretly follow the group.

Vesta and her witch sisters were looking through the stable as it was empty. Vesta herself was viewing the building as he servants were sniffing about for a scent to pick up.

"They were here" one of the witches said "I can smell their stench"

"Follow it" Vesta ordered to her sister.

"Yes Vesta" the witch replied. As she and some of the witches set off to find the group and retrieve the map so they could find the gemstones.

**Wow, I didn't realize that it would take me this long to make the chapter, but it's done. I hope you guys liked it, as well as that thing with Mildew near the end. There will be more action in some scene and a few more characters will join the group soon. Please review and I will update as soon as I can. See you next time.**


	13. Encounters and Warnings

**Ok, so here is the next chapter for the story. When we last left our group, they were stopping in a stable house after finding Mildew in the middle of the desert, but learn that he has been working with the Outcasts for a while and the group escapes, but not before Django gives Alvin a fake map to throw them off their trail. I'll try to write some more and make sure that this story gets finished, as it may take a little while longer since I'm going on vacation for the week and won't be back till next Saturday, but I'll do some more when I get back. So anyway, enjoy the chapter, and make sure to review.**

Chapter 12

It had been a day since the group escaped the stable house, and they were still doing well so far. Merida was studying the map to see where they would go to next along with Hiccup, Astrid, Django, Puss and Kitty were keeping an eye out for any other intruders that would be following them, and the other Viking teens were keeping an eye on Mildew, who was being dragged behind the wagon tied up with Fungus walking right next to him. It was late in the afternoon and the sun was still up in the sky, but not as high to be mid-day.

"Well, I think we know where to go" Hiccup exclaimed.

"That's good" Django replied "As long as you two have the map we'll know where we're going"

"What should we do now?" Astrid asked the two cousins.

"I think we should set up camp somewhere very soon" Merida suggested.

"I agree seniorita" Puss added "It is very tiring, and I do need to take care of a few things"

"Like what, your shedding" Snotlout said from the wagon.

"No, just some things that I brought along" Puss said knowing that he doesn't shed. As the group was riding through the dirt area, they soon found an area where trees were growing around them and they figured that they had found themselves in an area of the desert where the soil was much richer. As they were riding through the area, Django noticed something moving in the distance. He held out his hand and signaled everyone to stop, and the rest of the group complied as Hiccup and Merida stopped the horse and dragon and Astrid stopped the wagon.

"What is it" Merida asked Django.

"I see a few figures out there" Django replied to them. The group members stood up and grabbed whatever weapons they owned, waiting to strike in case it was any enemies.

"Outcasts?" Hiccup asked Django.

"I don't think so" Django replied.

"Yeah I think you're right" Hiccup replied "Besides, if it were them, then they would be flying on the dragons that they have" the rest of the group agreed but still decided to remain on watch to see whoever it was that was out there. Merida had notched an arrow into her bow, Puss and Kitty had their hands on their swords, Django had both hands on his guns, and Toothless to a battle ready stance. After a few minutes of silence, there appeared to be nobody out there and some of them assumed that it was probably just a coyote, wolf, or any other type of wild animal that would live out in the desert. Django lowered his weapon, as did some of the other members of the group.

"Looks like it was probably just an animal" Astrid said. However, she spoke too soon as an arrow came flying out of nowhere and hit the side of the wagon, followed by the sound of a gunshot, with that, the group quickly grabbed their weapons again.

"Spread out" Django ordered to the group. They all nodded as they found a place for cover while Astrid and Fishlegs were getting the horses to a safer place so they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire. Merida, Hiccup and Toothless took over behind a large boulder while the others took cover either behind trees or bushes, and some like Fishlegs that decided just to hide in the wagon.

"Who's out there?" Django called out into the darkness to see who I was. The group waited until they were met with the sound of another gunshot and another arrow wiz by and hit a tree nearby. The group fired, but seemed to hit nothing as they had no idea who was out there.

"I bet it's just one guy" Tuffnut said to the group.

"It can't be" Django replied "I think it's more like two of them, I saw what appeared to be two"

"How can we be sure that there are two" Snotlout said.

"Check and see" Astrid replied. Snotlout looked a bit nervous at the answer that was given to him, and decided that he didn't want to be shot, but had to do what they said. So he slowly placed his hand on top of his helmet, and took it off his head. He slowly started to lower it away from his hiding place so that it would be seen by whoever was out there. Then, a shot rang out, and the bullet hit the helmet knocking it out of his hand an onto the ground followed by an arrow that landed right next to him, impaled on the ground just close to his feet. After this happened, Snotlout turned to Django and the rest of the group.

"I hate it when I'm wrong" Snotlout muttered.

"Ok, we know that they're out there, so now what" Hiccup asked Django. The young gunman thought for a little bit, the same with the others who were thinking of what to do as well.

"Let's just charge right to them and use Ruffnut as a human shield" Tuffnut suggested, which was also a joke. This irritated his sister, who in return for the joke was given a punch to the face. The two were about to get into a fight until Django shushed both of them to be quiet.

"Ok, so what do we do now?" Merida asked the gunfighter. He thought for a minute, until he thought of something.

"Maybe if one of us would circle around and see if they can catch them from behind, we might be able to have the advantage" Django explained to Merida and Hiccup as a plan.

"I do not think that it will work now" a voice said behind them. The group froze, and slowly turned around to see three bandits facing them, one with a musket, the other with a crossbow, and the third with a knife surrounding the group.

"Marcos Cortez has interest in all of you" one of the gang members said. As soon as he said that name, Django started to realize that he had finally made it out of prison, the man that he had been searching for nine years, the one that left him with nothing to lose, was out for them. Django pulled out his gun, pulled it into a cocked position, and pointed it at the two bandits, with full intention of killing them.

"How should we be sure that we should even go with you" Django asked coldly.

"Trust me kid" one of the bandits said to him "There won't be anyone else to go to now"

"Really" Django said "There will be soldiers coming after you guys and you know that"

"Oh I wouldn't say that" one of the soldiers replied "The Comandante of San Ricardo has agreed to let our boss go after you as long as we bring the one known as Puss in Boots to him" Puss was surprised by this, and turned to Kitty.

"How long will that guy even hold a grudge against you?" Kitty asked Puss.

"Eh, he is still misunderstood about a lot of things" Puss said to his female companion. Django still had his gun pointed at the three men, but was simply stalling them so that Hiccup and Toothless can wait for their time to strike.

"How do we know you're not bluffing?" Astrid asked the bandits.

"Does it look like they're bluffing" Snotlout asked Astrid after he had retrieved his helmet that was on the ground.

"Let's just say that the boss is not one to be reckoned with" one of the bandits said to the group.

"Well neither are we" Django said with a smirk. He turned over to Hiccup and nodded which Hiccup nodded back, as he jumped onto Toothless and jumped out in the light to reveal themselves to the bandits. The men looked startled by this and started to take a step back. That's when Django fired his gun and killed the bandit with the crossbow and the one with the musket, causing them both to fall dead to the ground. The third bandit was looking scared as he looked at the dragon, then at Django and didn't know which one he was most afraid of. So he just turned and ran away from the group as Django put his gun back in his holster.

"Boy did we give that guy a run for his own money" Snotlout said in a victorious manner.

"Don't be surprised" Django said "There are a few members of Cortez's gang that can be cowards, he's probably going back to give a warning to his boss"

"Well, let's just hope that we don't run into him or any more of his men on this trip" Hiccup said.

"I wouldn't be so sure on that" Django said to Hiccup, knowing that he still had a score to settle with Marcos once he would cross paths with him again.

"We should probably set up camp" Merida suggested to the group.

"Yeah, I'm getting tired" Astrid said "Snotlout, would you still keep an eye on our prisoner over there?"

"You got it" Snotlout said to Astrid as he went over to keep an eye on Mildew while the rest of the group started to set up camp in the area.

Meanwhile, the last surviving bandit was running through the woods, to make his way back to his boss to explain what happened, still scared out of his wits by the dragon that they had. He was stopping by a rock, hoping to catch his breath until he heard a rustle in some of the bushes that were right close to him. He snakingly raised his rifle and cocked it, aiming it at wherever the sudden noise was coming from.

"Who goes there" the man said in a shaky tone, still thinking that it was the group, or at least a member of the group coming after him "I don't want to mess with you any longer, I'll just let the boss do it"

"Oh, I don't think our sister is even close to your boss" A feminine voice said from behind him. He turned around to face one of the desert witches that was with Vesta. He raised his gun to kill the witch, but she whipped out her wand and forced the musket out of the man's hand before pulling him towards her.

"I don't think I should just let you go without a warning should I" The witch said in a sarcastic tone. She then whispered something into the palm of her hand, and then opened it to reveal a caterpillar like creature that had spike like feet underneath it. She placed her hand on the man and forced his mouth open with her wand, before bringing the creature closer to the man's mouth, and then letting the creature crawl out of her hand and into the bandit's mouth.

"Let this be a warning to that boss of yours" the witch said to him "I'll see that he will get it when you go back to him" she then pushed the man aside and allowed him to walk back to his boss, while he was feeling weird since the poison from the bug was starting to go into effect. The witch just smiled and went to find a good hiding place, waiting for the right time to strike at the group.

Marcos and his gang, along with several Spanish soldiers were waiting for the three men to come back and see if they had caught the group.

"Where are they?" Marcos wondered to himself "I thought that they would have found them by now" suddenly, the surviving bandit came into view of the group and staggered a bit before coming into their view. Marcos looked at the last of the three bandits that were sent and wondered where the other two were and what happened. He walked over to where he was and looked at him.

"What happened?" Marcos asked him "Where are the other two?"

"They're dead" the man said still shaking "The two of them were killed by one of their own when we tried to ambush them. I ran, and came across this witch"

"A witch?" Marcos said curious.

"Yes, she said to give me a message… to you" the man said. Soon, his veins started to turn black and his skin turned pale, until finally he gave out his breath and collapsed to the ground dead. The worm then came out of his mouth and started to crawl onto its body. Marcos recognized the worm before and picked it up with his hand to take a look at it.

"Well Vesta" Marcos said "It looks like we're not the only one who knows about the map" he held the little creature in his hand until he slowly started squeezing it until the creature was squashed in his hands. He threw it away and wiped some splattered stuff from the creature on his jacket and cleaned his hands. He turned over to his other men, who saw the whole thing, and started walking slowly towards them.

"It seems that the group we are after is more protected than we anticipated" Marcos said to his men "And it seems that we aren't the only ones after them"

"Hey boss" one of the men said "I see a wagon heading straight for us" Marcos looked and saw a large wagon carried by wild boars heading straight for them.

**( watch?v=u6i58PoS5rs&list=PL490961CFF468E40A&index=3)**

"Well, it looks like they've finally made it" Marcos said with a smile. The two people that were in the wagon were none other than Jack and Jill, the married couple who were also the most murderous outlaws in the country. As the wagon came over to a stop in front of the group, Marcos walked over to it. First Jack came out while grabbing his gun, followed by his wife Jill, and they both came over to Marcos.

"Well, it is good to see you two again" Marcos said to them.

"So how goes the hunting?" Jack asked Marcos.

"It is going well" Marcos replied "It seems though that we aren't the only ones after the map. Vesta and her group of desert witches are also after the map as well."

"Well I'll be" Jill said "We be goin' after them gemstones as well, and we can catch up to that group no easier than you can"

"Well I wouldn't say that" Marcos said to them "Chasing them on our own would be such a waste of time. I would say that if both of us went after them at the same time we could catch up to them and get that map for both of us to use"

"Hmmm, that could work" Jack thought "How do we know that we can trust you"

"The Comandante has promised to give me and my group $1000 reward for bringing in Puss in Boots who is with the group. I get the money and the rest of the group, and you two can get the gemstones" Jack and Jill looked at each other, and then back at Marcos, and figured that this would be a deal that couldn't be turned down.

"Alright we'll do it" Jill said "But we'll keep our end of the deal, and you keep yours"

"Deal" Marcos replied. The two outlaws and the Bandit went over to the rest of the gang so they could continue their search for finding the group.

**Alright so that's the end of the chapter. I hope you guys didn't think that the part with the worm was too gross, I just wanted some unique ways for these types of witches to kill their enemies besides spell from their wands. Hansel and Gretel will be joining the group soon so keep tight. The next update won't be up for a while since I'm going away for the week and won't be back until next Saturday, but when I do get back, I will get back to writing the chapters. As always please review, and I will see you all next time.**


	14. Metting Hansel and Gretel

**Hello there readers, I'm back from my vacation, which means I'm back to continue writing chapters for this story. So Hansel and Gretel will meet the group in this chapter, but in an elaborate way that I have come up with as an action sequence, and I will also include some music from the soundtrack for the movie "Hansel and Gretel: witch hunters" which you will find in the link in the chapter. Well, I hope you guys have been reviewing lately, and I hope you like the results. Enjoy.**

Chapter 13

It was dark out, but getting closer to dawn, as the sun was slowly starting to peek along the horizon. The group had set up their campsite last night after the quarrel, and had fallen asleep after they had eaten, fed the animals, and settled down in the area. They were all still sleeping as they usually did. Some of them slept in the wagon, while the rest slept in sleeping bags around the campfire that was now starting to die down and smoke was coming from the ashes. Some of the teens slept with their weapons right near them in case there would be any more intruders that would try to stalk them. Meanwhile, right outside of the campsite, a desert witch set by Vesta to go after the group was watching them from a couple of trees, studying the group after she had taken care of the bandit. She knew that now was the time to strike, as her plan was to stalk up to the group and see if she could steal the map, and if one of them woke up, she would simply hold them off to keep the person quite, and force information on where the map is so she can take it anyway. She slowly snuck out of her hiding place and quietly made her way down the hill towards the camp site. She had her wand out and was looking around the camp to see if she could find the map, starting by looking around the camp fire and even in the wagon with no luck. Suddenly, she heard the sound of a moan and turned to see one of the teens in the group waking up, which was a girl that had fiery red hair. Merida looked around to see everybody else was asleep, but soon looked in fear as she saw the desert witch looking straight at her. Before she could make a noise, the desert witch sped up to her, covered her mouth, and pointed her wand at her.

"Don't even try it" The desert witch said softly to Merida "Just tell me where the map is and I'll be on my way. Of course if you try to wake any of your friends up, then… Well, I think you get what I'm saying" She slowly moved her hand off of Merida's mouth so she could give a reply, but Merida spat in her face and looked at her with a glare.

"I'll never tell you where it is" Merida replied "And even if I did I wouldn't let you have it"

"Very well then" the witch replied. She reached into her pocket and took out a dusty substance and faced Merida. She opened the palm of her hands and blew the dust into Merida's face. Merida coughed a little bit, but then, she started to look woozy, as her head started to wobble a bit and her eyelids became lazy as if she was in some sort of trance, and the witch smiled as she still pointed her wand at Merida.

"Now let's try this again darling" the witch replied "Where is the map" Merida, still in her brief trance, looked at the witch.

"It's in the bag that's right next to our horses" Merida replied while sounding like a blank, obedient slave.

"Thank you. That wasn't so bad was it then" the witch said smiling as she still had her wand pointed at Merida when she started to come out of the trance. The princess looked confused as if she didn't remember what happened for the last minute.

"What happened?" Merida said to the witch.

"Sorry, it looks like I had to use some of my truth dust so you would tell me where the map was" the witch said to her "Now that you have told me, I'll just take it and be off" Merida was about to move for her bow and arrows, but the witch still had her wand out and had it pointed at the girl "Ah, ah, ah, don't even try it" Merida stopped and knew that she didn't want to risk getting the other members of the group or herself killed, so she slowly raised her hand down "Good girl" the witch smirked as she slowly walked backwards towards the horses and Toothless, who were still sleeping, and reached her hand into the bag that had the Dunbroch crest on it. She opened the bag and pulled out the rolled up map that was inside and smiled as she still aimed her wand at the princess. Suddenly, a shot rang out and the wand that was in the desert witches hand was shot right out of her hand, she turned around and saw that Django was wide awake and had one of his pistols aimed at the witch, Puss was up as well and had his sword out, and Hiccup was awake with a crossbow aimed at the witch and an arrow notched into the weapon. The witch slowly put her wand away, and looked at the group of men (and one cat). The rest of the group were starting to get up and saw the scene that was occurring, even the horses were starting to wake up and Toothless was looking at the intruder with a growl and the good intention to strike.

"Put your hands on your head" Django ordered with his gun still loaded "Slowly"

"Alright then" the witch replied in a normal tone. She slowly started to move her hands above her head as she was still in front of the group. Unknown to them however, she had a throwing knife that was strapped to her back that she was secretly reaching down for so she could strike.

"Turn around" Django said as the witch still had her hands on her head. Instead of replying, she takes the knife and throws it straight at them before making a run for it. Django merely shoots the knife as he; Puss, Hiccup, and Merida grab their weapons and give chase to the witch.

**( watch?v=FphDgJVdB0o&list=PLi7c3QE0vQzlM65vyPNSY0DSS_YUp5Nip, 0:25 – 2:05)**

She got to her stake out area and grabbed and long pole off the group which is revealed to be her broom as she gets on and starts to fly. The group was starting to lose pace with her, and the witch was smiling before a blast hit her in one of her arms and knocked her off of her broom. She tumbled on the ground and her broom rolled on the ground until it stopped at the foot of a man that was wearing a black leather coat and had a shotgun on his shoulder. The rest of the group were surprised by this and were about to charge, but Django halted them with his hand up.

"Let's just see what transpires first, and if it moves, we'll just follow them" he said to the group before they saw what continued. The man with the shotgun looked down at the witch, who knew that she was in big trouble now and continued to run for her life. The man fired two shots which missed and hit two trees, and the man took off after the witch while the members of the group decided to follow them to see what else might happen. They ran through the forest, with the witch dodging several shots from the man's shotgun while the group secretly followed the man and the witch while trying their best not to be seen. Then, the chase came out to an open area where a woman, who was wearing black leather clothing, came up from a bush and tackled the witch to the ground where they proceeded to engage in a fist fight with the witch. The witch got up, until the woman threw another punch at the witches face before the witch grabbed the woman by the arms, pushed her against a tree, and attempted to slice her face, only for the woman to act fast and duck, making the witch miss and leave a large scratch in the tree. The woman punched her again, and she tried to run off and head straight for the man, only for him to grab her and slam her to the ground. The witch got up, still in pain, and attempts to flee. Only for the woman to take out a strange looking crossbow and fired two arrows that were both attached to a cable that hit the witch in both of her legs, causing her to collapse to the ground, while the woman attached the cable to a tree branch and pulled her up until the witch was hanging from the tree branch with two wounded legs. The two figures looked at their usual work with satisfaction in their faces as the witch squirmed around, struggling to get free.

"Well, she looks angry" Gretel said as they both looked at the squirming witch.

"Yeah, a face like that, I'd be angry too" Hansel replied back to his sister. He raised his shotgun and hit the witch straight in the chest with it, and the force of the hit caused a rolled up piece of paper to fall out of a pocket that the witch had in her dress. Both siblings looked down at the piece of paper and were curious as to what it was. Before they could reach down and pick it up, they heard the sound of a gun clicking into cocked position and turn around to see Django facing both of them with his gun out and the others behind him. The two siblings took out their weapons, wondering if they were a threat to them. In the silent moment, Django simply turned his gun towards the witch that was still dangling in the air, and fired a shot into her back. He fired several more shots one at a time while approaching the two witch hunters before stopping in front of them after he fired one more shot into the witch. He placed the gun back into his holster and faced both of the witch hunters as they were surprised by this little help that they have received.

"That was our kill" Hansel said to Django.

"Yeah, and that piece of paper that she took us something that we need" Django replied in a calm tone.

"Why is it so important to you anyway?" Hansel asked the young man.

"Let's discuss it back at our camp site" Django said to them. After Django picked up the map and gave it back to Merida, Hansel and Gretel followed them back to the camp site as the sun was slowly starting to rise.

The sun was starting to shine as morning had come into the valley, everybody was up and getting their things on, some slices of bread and fruit were out for breakfast, and fresh water was being brought in from the stream to fill up some of the groups canteen's for now and for later on the road. Hansel and Gretel were sitting down after they had introduced themselves to the group and settled down in the campsite, and the group introduced themselves to the brother and sister as well. Some of the teens, notably Fishlegs along with Django, Puss and Kitty have heard about the two siblings and had heard many stories about their most famous exploits, and the two siblings have heard of some of them as well (mostly Puss, Kitty, and Django). Hiccup told Merida about who they were since she knew very little about Hansel and Gretel, since he had heard of them, and Merida became fascinated by the two siblings, especially the weapons they carried which were unlike any that she had ever seen before in her life. Merida was looking at their weapons in amazement and curiosity as the siblings continued to rest.

"How could witch hunters like you two go around with contraptions like these?" Merida asked while holding and inspecting Gretel's automatic crossbow.

"Those contraptions" Gretel said while Merida gave it back to her "Are things that we ourselves have made and used"

"And It looks like we're not the only ones who know how to make a gun" Hansel said looking over to Django who was inspecting his guns. Django looked back and felt that he was feeling jealous, and Puss could feel it as well.

"What is the matter senior?" Puss asked Hansel.

"We usually are the ones that do the witch hunting" Hansel replied turning to Django "But it looks like your friend here was able to finish her off before we could"

"Well, I did it as a way of helping you two" Django replied.

"We don't need any help" Hansel replied before turning to Merida and Hiccup "So why are these two cousins of royalty, out traveling in a dangerous hell hole like this?"

"We had found a map that leads to two gemstones that were made and buried by our ancestors somewhere in Madrid, and we decided to go and find them" Merida explained to the two siblings, who looked slightly surprised since they had heard of the legend as kids.

"Well, I'll admit that does sound amazing" Gretel said "We would like to help, but there is a grand desert witch that we need to take down and bring in"

"You mean Vesta" Django asked.

"Yeah" Hansel replied "How did you know?"

"I've seen those kinds of witches before" Django replied.

"So have I" Puss replied "But Django, Kitty and I need to help these two find the gemstones that they are searching for"

"Sure" Hansel said sarcastically "After we take down our witch" a clicking noise came from a device on Hansel's arm before he turned it back and went over to their bag and was grabbing a small injector type object out of the bag and injecting it into his leg while some of the teens, mostly Merida, Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs looked at in curiosity.

"Or before you do" Django replied "Or at the same time we find what we're looking for" Hansel had just taken the needle out of his leg when he heard this and he and his sister both looked at him, as did the rest of the group.

"Is this some kind of proposition that you're offering?" Gretel asked him.

"Yep" Django replied "An equal alliance. You may not know this but Vesta is after those gemstones as well, like many other criminals are"

"I'll bet" Hansel replied "She probably sees this as another valuable treasure for her to take for herself"

"She does" Django replied "So here is my arrangement: You two come along with us as we keep moving to the place we need to go to. Vesta and other criminals will follow us there, and if you guys agree to come with us on our journey, they can get some more protection, and you guys will be able to get you bounty from the witch when you kill her, everybody wins and goes home happy" Hansel and Gretel were looking at each other, wondering if what this guy offered to them is a good Idea. On one hand they needed to get on with their job, on the other hand they couldn't help but feel that they needed some help, and that traveling with them will allow them to get to Vesta a lot faster. Hansel looked at his sister, who was feeling that maybe they should help, and looked back at Django and the group, who were waiting for their reply.

"Alright, we'll join you guys" Hansel replied "If what you say is true then I guess my sister and I could use an advantage for this witch"

"That's fine with me" Django replied "We're just eating something before we head off, do you mind eating anything?"

"Sure, I think we could use something to eat" Gretel replied. So the two witch hunters continued to relax and socialize with the group before they headed off with the group, taking their horses and their tools with them.

**So that's it for now. Again, sorry for the delay but I hope that this update makes up for it. The truth dust was something that I had made up for one of the spells that these types of witches use (there will be more deadly ones along the way I assure you), and the track that was in this chapter is from the Hansel and Gretel film so I decided to incorporate it into the story (the scene where they fight the witch is reminiscent to a scene in the movie), there will be another western soundtrack in the next chapter, one that some of you may or may not be familiar with. As always, please review before you leave and I will update as soon as possible, see ya.**


	15. Riding along and The Past

**Ok guys, so here is the next chapter. So in the last chapter, the group runs into Hansel and Gretel who help them fight against a desert witch who tries to take the map, and agrees to travel with them so they can claim their bounty on Vesta the grand desert witch. I can tell you that there will be a western theme song in this chapter, but I'm not going to tell you what it is, it might be familiar to some, while it may not be for others. So I hope you guys like the results in this chapter, enjoy.**

Chapter 14

After the group had eaten their breakfast and packed everything they needed for the road, they set off to continue their journey, Merida and Hiccup led the front while everybody else followed them from behind as they both had the map. As soon as they were ready, they snapped the reins on their horses and rode out onto the dirt road.

**( watch?v=MSHr4ubuD64)**

_Rollin Rollin Rollin  
Rollin Rollin Rollin  
Rollin Rollin Rollin  
Rollin Rollin Rollin  
Rawhide!_

The group moved along the desert road at a continuing pace throughout the day, with the sun shining bright in the sky, and Django, Puss, and the witch hunters guarding each side.

_Keep rollin rollin rollin  
though the strings are swollen  
Keep them doggies moving, Rawhide!  
Through rain and wind and weather, Hell bent for leather  
wishing my gal was by my side,  
All the things I'm missing, god viddles love and kissing,  
are waiting at the end of ride._

They moved in through forest and desert areas, sides of cliffs and in some cases, through some rainy days and days when it was raining. The teens had done their part to help the leaders of the group, making sure that the cargo was well protected and helped guard the area around them.

_Move em' on, head em' up, head em' up, move em' on,  
move em' on, head em' up, rawhide  
cut em' out, ride em' in, ride em' in, cut em' out, cut em' out,  
ride em' in rawhide!_

As they continued down the area each day, Merida and Hiccup had been studying the map, pointing out the way that they should go and the directions that they should take, which they follow on their ride down the country. They had noticed that Django was feeling a little insecure lately and felt that he was hiding something, but felt that they should wait until the right moment to ask why.

_Keep movin' movin movin', though they're disapproving  
keep them doggies moving rawhide  
don't try to understand them, just rope, throw and brand them  
soon we'll be living high and wide  
my heart's calculating my true love will be waiting  
be waiting at the end of my ride._

They continued to ride through the area as the sun was starting to set, and could see a heard of dear that were moving in the distance close to where they were moving, they had not come across any intruders for a few days now and some of them were relieved at this.

_Move em' on, head em' up, head em' up, move em' on,  
move em' on, head em' up, rawhide  
Cut em' out, ride em' in, ride em' in, cut em' out, cut em' out,  
ride em' in, rawhide! Rawhide.  
RAWHIDE!_

As the sun was slowly starting to set on the horizon, the group decided to stop at a nearby oasis and camp out for the night. Merida, Hiccup, Astrid and Django led the horses and Toothless over to a place at the edge of the campsite where they could rest in the protected area, while the others were in charge of getting the camp fire set up, the sleeping bags laid out, and the food that they would eat and would be roasting over the fire be taken out and prepared. After a while, everybody was sitting by the fire, roasting some meat and food, talking amongst each other, or just looking up at the stars.

"Boy, it sure is nice out tonight" Hiccup said as he sat down looking at the stars.

"Indeed it is" Puss replied. Astrid, who was sitting next to Hiccup, looked over to Merida.

"Hey Merida?" Astrid said to her.

"Yeah?" Merida replied.

"Do you think that we're getting closer to the gemstones" she asked her friend.

"Yes, we're getting close" Merida replied "Pretty soon we'll be there in no time"

"Good, our families be surprised when we tell them about all of this when we get back" Astrid remarked. Some of the members of the group chuckled at that remark as they continued to lay by the fire.

"So I've seen the way you handle that dragon of yours" Hansel said to Hiccup while he looked at Toothless "How did you learn to do that"

"Ah yes, I have been curious about it myself" Puss added.

"Well, to be honest, It wasn't always known back then" Hiccup said "There was a time back on Berk when the dragons were our enemies. The battles were ferocious, with the dragons having the most casualties. Then one day, I met Toothless, and everything changed"

"Tell us more" Puss said. Hiccup nodded and explained the story of how he first met Toothless, how he fixed his tail, the battle against the Red Death, and how he and the other teens showed the people of Berk that instead of fighting dragons, they could live with them, ride them, and even train them. After he had finished the story, Django, Puss, Kitty, and Hansel and Gretel were fascinated by this and surprised that something like this could have been accomplished. Merida smiled and soon thought of something that they could do for the rest of the evening.

"Alright, it's my turn to tell my own story" Merida said. So for most of the night, some of the main members of the group took turns telling stories. Merida told about her incident with her mom turning into a bear, and how it helped her relationship with her mother when she changed her back, Puss and Kitty told them about their adventures involving the golden goose and Humpty Alexander Dumpty, Puss's old friend who betrayed him once, but redeemed himself when they crossed path's again, and Hansel told the group about the incident with the witch in the gingerbread house that made him and his sister grow up to become famous witch hunters. All of them were amazed by each other's tales, mostly the teens for the other tales that were told, and especially Django, who felt that he probably wasn't the only one that had many great adventures in the past, even though his adventures may not have been great.

"So what about Django over here, we haven't heard his story" Hansel said.

"Yeah, we didn't get to hear it when we met you" Fishlegs added over to Django. As soon as he heard that from the group, his smile slowly faded and looked at the rest of the group with a tiny hint of sadness.

"You really want me to tell you about it?" Django asked them.

"Yeah, we told our stories, and we haven't heard from you" Hiccup said "How did you become who you are today?" Django took a deep breath before turning to face the group, he knew that what he was about to tell them would make him feel the pain of those awful memories, but felt that if would be best if the others were to hear about it.

"Ok then, I'll tell you how" Django replied as he sat up straight and began his tale "It was about nine years ago, I was just a normal farm boy living on a small ranch out in the middle of nowhere with my mother and father, my older brother, and my little sister. My father and mother had lived on that small ranch their whole lives, and had decided to settle down and raise the three of us. We were all happy together, living a life together, until one faithful day, when everything would change for the rest of my life"

**(Flashback)**

_ It was bright and sunny out on the ranch, there was silence around, and not a single animal was about. All of the residence were inside, a man wearing a brown wide brimmed hat and his wife were resting inside with their three loving children, one had long hair, was wearing a white dress, and had a hand made doll with her. The second was a young boy about 11 years old that had brown hair and a usual ranch get up, and the third appeared to be a young man who was more built and strong. The father felt that something was wrong, since it was never usually this quiet around the house and went to the window to check. He looks to see a cloud of dust coming in from above a hill that was in front of the ranch, the dust came in closer to reveal a gang riding closer and closer to the ranch. He saw who was leading the gang towards them, as if he knew him, and turned to his family that was sitting right behind him doing their normal things. The wife looked up to her husband and saw the look on his face._

"_They're here aren't they?" the wife asked before he nodded._

"_Get the children to a safe place, now" the father ordered his wife. She nodded in reply and got the children, except for the oldest, to go outside and hide in the bunker that was on the side of another hill that was right next to the house. She warned both of the kids not to move from the spot or make any noise, no matter what they hear or see, and quickly went back to her husband and their eldest son while the two children kept themselves hidden inside. Out on the ranch, the three eldest members of the family were all inside the house with any weapon they could get their hands on to defend themselves from these intruders. Once the gang arrived at the ranch, few of them snuck into the house from behind, and surrounded them, ushering them outside where the leader of the gang was waiting for them. The leader stepped off of his horse and made his way to the father, the leader who was none other than Marcos Cortez._

"_Hello there my friend" Marcos said to the father in a dark tone "it has been a long time"_

"_More than I remember" the father said "Why are you here Marcos"_

"_You know why" Marcos said with a sneer "After what you did to me and my men we deserve to meet with you on this day" he had his hand on his double barreled handgun that was still in his holster that he was prepared to use. His men started to advance on the family and the men grabbed the oldest son and the mother and held them with knives pointed at their throats while Marcos had the father being held right in front of him._

"_Please don't do this" the father said begging Marcos "They're both innocent. I'm the one you want and you know that, just let them go"_

"_Oh, now I can't do that" Marcos said with a sneer "You took money to put me behind bars. You should have killed me when you could" he said before spitting into the fathers face "It would be better for you and for them" he then turned to where the other two family members were and looked at the oldest son in interest "How old is the boy?" Marcos asked the wife. She was still feeling scarred because of her being held back by the men and Marcos decided to ask her again but a little bit louder "How old is the boy I ask?!" the wife looked up to him after he had yelled the answer again._

"_He is 18 years old" the wife replied uncomfortably as Marcos looked back at the father._

"_Just the amount of time that I was in jail" Marcos said to the father with a sneer as both Marcos and the father knew what was going to happen next. Marcos took his gun out and cocked both hammers back. _

"_No, please don't" the father begged him, but it was already too late, he raised his gun and smiled._

"_Times up" Marcos said as he fired his gun, shooting the eldest son first and then the mother. The father yelled in sadness as his wife and son collapsed to the ground. The two younger children were watching this but tried their best to keep hiding. The sister however was so upset to see her mother like this that she wanted to run over and be at her side. _

"_MOMMY!" the girl shouted as she ran out of the bunker so that she could be with her mother._

"_No wait get back here" the middle brother said to his sister to try to get her to stop. He was too late though as she ran down the hill as fast as she could with her doll still in her hands. Marcos and his men noticed this and smiled sarcastically._

"_Ah, another one" Marcos said "I think we know just what to do" he nodded to one of his gang members who had a modified riffle in his hands and took a shot. A second later, the daughter was lying dead on the ground with her doll right next to her and a tear in her eye. The father was becoming distraught by this and tears were starting to form in his eyes._

"_Now you must hate me even more" Marcos said to the father "Well I can give you a way out of this" he whistled over to one of his gang members who brought over a small wooden box that was in the storage area of the house. The man opened the box to reveal two custom made pistols that belonged to him that he hasn't used in years. He looked at the weapons and then back and Marcos, who was just simply looking at him._

"_This time you'll have a chance to shoot me but not in the back" Marcos said to him. The father knew that Marcos had caused him pain like he had given him, and if he wanted to end it with him, now was the best time. He went over to where his weapons were, picked them up, along with the cartridges and the gun belt, loaded the weapon, and placed them both in the gun belt strapped to his side._

**( watch?v=wf0KwkbIHgc&list=PL8FF0B58AB9C73DDE&index=3, 0:04 – 1:32)**

_Once he was all loaded, the father turned over to Marcos and Marcos faced him. The two men were about to face each other in a duel for the pains that they have both suffered._

"_You do know that I'll kill you for this" the father said to Marcos, who stood with his gun back in his holster after reloading it._

"_You had your chance" Marcos said "And I made you pay for betraying me and my men"_

"_I was doing what was right" the father replied._

"_It doesn't matter what you did" Marcos said "You are a traitor and you must pay. Boys, clear the way" the men replied and moved away as both men faced each other from the distance, both weapons loaded and being awaited to fire. The boy watched this and was worried what might happen, who would win, who would die, and he knew that all he had to do was wait and see. After what seemed like forever, both men drew their guns, however, Marcos was able to draw his gun faster than the father, who was much slower this time due to his rage, and was shot in the chest and fell to the ground, with his right gun on the ground out of his holster. Marcos smiled as he lowered his weapon back into his holster, before walking over to the dead father and looked at the ring he had on his hand and the ring that he had given his now dead wife and smiled, knowing that his days are now done. The boy, who was watching the whole thing from the bunker was in shock and felt that he was all alone now and didn't want to die. He snuck out of the shed and started to run up the hill as fast as he could. Unfortunately, Marcos and his men heard this and turned to see a young boy running for his life up a hill and knew that there was another._

"_Just how many do I have to take care of today?" Marcos said to his men sarcastically. He pulled out his gun and cocked the second barrel and aimed it at the running boy, before he fired the gun, and the shot went by and hit the boy somewhere in the shoulder, causing him to fall off of the top of the hill and started to roll down until he hit a small rock in his head causing him to go unconscious. Marcos, believing that the boy is dead, turned to his men and smiled "Well boys, it looks like another job well done"_

"_What should we do with the house" one of the gang members asked. Marcos looked back at the house and felt that since the family is dead, they wouldn't need it anymore._

"_Burn it" He said to his men "Burn it down to the ground, but leave the bodies to the birds" all of the men laughed and smiled as they lit a few torches and started to throw them into some parts of the house, setting it ablaze, after the house was soon burning, the gang all got on their horses and rode away from the now destroyed and deserted ranch._

_ A few hours later, the boy had gotten up from his deep sleep slowly and realized that he was on the ground, he went up the hill while still clutching his wound, and when he made it to the top, he saw a large, smoking burned wreckage of the place that he once called his home, with his family that he knew and loved all dead in front of it. Tears started forming from the distraught boys face as he came down, then he dropped to his knees and buried his face in his hands in front of his families corpses. Later, he carried the bodies of his family members to some empty graves that he had dug up and placed each of their bodies and covering them with dirt, believing that they deserved a proper funeral. He had found his father's hat and guns and placed them in front of his father's grave. He was now looking at the buried graves in silence, not knowing what to do. He held both of his parent's wedding rings which he had retrieved and held them close to him, and looked at his father's hat and guns and soon started to feel like he knew what he had to do. He went over to the grave of his father and picked up the hat and his guns and gun belt. He placed the hat over his head and strapped the gun belt at his side, even though it was a little big for him and looked back at his family's graves._

"_I will do this for all of you" the boy said to the graves "Especially you father. You're son Django will avenge your deaths and find that man, I swear"_

**(End of Flashback)**

"So from that day forward, I had trained myself on how to use my father's weapons" Django was explaining to the group at the fire "I had honed a skill at being fast when drawing my gun. I had been drifting ever since, looking for the man that murdered my loved ones and ruined my life" After he was done telling his backstory, everybody around the fire was speechless. They didn't know that Marcos had caused him this much pain and that he had spent a long time looking for him in search of revenge. Merida and the others looked at each other and were feeling bad for him.

"Sorry we had to ask" Hiccup said quietly.

"Don't be" Django replied "I had to get that out of my system anyway"

"So where are your parent's wedding rings?" Merida asked him.

"They're right here" Django said reaching into his shirt before pulling out a chained necklace that had two golden rings, one with emerald and one with diamonds hanging from it "I kept them with me so that I can remember them"

"That's sweet" Astrid said "We're sorry about your loss"

"I appreciate that" Django replied.

"Wait a minute. So does this mean that you agreed to come with us just for your revenge" Snotlout asked him.

"No, I agreed to help because those two are family" Django said pointing to Merida and Hiccup "And I felt that if it's important to them, it's important to me, and all families are important" Merida and Hiccup smiled at this, and felt glad that he would feel that way "But still, if I ever see Marcos Cortez again, I will kill him even if I have to ride all the way to hell to do it"

"We shall see to it that you get your chance then senior" Puss said to him. After sitting in silence around the camp fire, the group decided to get some rest and all went to sleep in their sleeping bags while the night was still fresh.

**That's it for now, this may have been the longest chapter I have worked on but it was worth it. I know that this chapter may have been a little darker than the previous chapters, but I wanted to show a little backstory to the character of Django and make it dark to give dramatic depth to the character so I hope some of you guys don't mind. The next chapter will be a little bit lighter, with a funny scene in it as comic relief, so stay tuned. As always, please review and I will update as soon as possible, so until next time, bye.**


	16. Ocean and End of the Line

**Hello there readers, I'm back and with more chapters for all of you. Last chapter we got to learn a little bit about Django's past as the group shared some stories with each other about their adventures and stories from the past. This chapter will have a little funny scene that I created for the chapter; I'm not going to tell you what it is until you start reading, but I assure you, it will be funny. Anyway, please review when you're done and enjoy.**

Chapter 15

After a night of stories told and secrets revealed, the group had been sleeping the night away, some with pleasant dreams, some not so much. Django was having another nightmare about the massacre that he had witnessed and had told the group about last night, and when he woke up in a cold sweat, he knew that he would not be in peace until he would find Marcos Cortez and put an end to him. The sun was now rising along the hills and Django and the others were slowly starting to wake up, especially the teens, who had enough energy in them to continue with the journey. Merida and Astrid worked together and got the bags and horses ready while Hiccup and the other teens were working on some breakfast and getting water for their canteens from a stream that was nearby. Hiccup saw how he was feeling uncomfortable and decided to go over and have a conversation with him; Toothless knew what Hiccup was thinking and decided to go over with him as well. They saw that Django was sitting on the ground, still a little sweaty from last night and was looking at his parents wedding rings, obviously thinking about them and the past tragedy.

"Hey Django" Hiccup said "Mind if Toothless and I sit down for a little bit?"

"Sure, I don't mind" Django said. He scotched over as Hiccup sat down and Toothless still stood on his four legs as they looked over at Django, Astrid saw this and decided to join in on the conversation as well. Hiccup saw Astrid walking over and scotched so she could have room.

"Sleep well?" Astrid asked Django while she was packing the bags.

"Not as well as the rest of you did" Django replied. Hiccup could tell that he was thinking about the tragedy that affected him since he was looking at his parent's wedding rings.

"I'll bet why you didn't sleep well" Astrid said "You were having a dream about our family didn't you"

"How did you know?" Django asked surprised by this.

"You look a little sweaty from last night and we see that you're looking at your parents wedding rings"

"Yeah, I have dreams about them every now and then" Django explained to them "It can get at me when I least expect it"

"Sometimes we dream about things that we don't usually expect to dream about" Astrid said.

"I guess that the only way for you to make them stop is just to get your revenge" Hiccup said to him, knowing what he was thinking of doing.

"That's just about it" Django said "I don't care how old I get trying to find him, but I will find him, and soon I bet" When Django said the word old, Hiccup was thinking about something that he might have forgotten, he couldn't put his finger on it until finally, it came to him.

"Did any of you guys check on Mildew" Hiccup asked some of the teens.

"That old man that we saw tied up behind your wagon?" Hansel asked him.

"Yeah, I forgot about him" Hiccup said "Astrid, could you mind checking on him and see how he's doing?"

"Sure" Astrid replied. She walked over to the back of the wagon but stopped as she saw that there was nobody back there except for the rope that was cut "He's gone!" everybody around the camp site stopped what they were doing and turned over to where Astrid was.

"What?" Hiccup asked so Astrid could repeat.

"Mildew, he's gone" Astrid said so the others could hear her "And so is his pet sheep" everybody got up and went over to the area behind the wagon. Sure enough, Mildew was not tied up in the back like he was for the past couple of days. Instead, there were some cut areas on the ropes that were tied up, and his staff and Fungus were gone too.

"He must have gotten away a couple of nights ago while we were still sleeping" Astrid said to the group.

"He couldn't have ripped them off with his bare hands" Merida added.

"Yeah, look at those cuts over there" Hiccup said pointing to the ropes that held Mildew that were now cut with a knife right next to it.

"Well, at least we know how he did it" Hansel said spotting the knife on the ground as he bent down and got it up.

"Oh this is just perfect" Fishlegs said worried "Now that he's free, he'll get back to Alvin and tell him everything"

"Calm down Fishlegs" Merida said "It may take a while for him to get back to Alvin and tell him what happened"

"What do you mean take a while for him to get back" Gretel asked "Isn't he after the map as well"

"He is" Django replied "But let's just say that because of a little trick that I pulled off. Alvin and his boys are WAY off course right now"

**( watch?v=uosnQ3g-f7U&list=PL8FF0B58AB9C73DDE&index=26, 0:00 – 1:26)**

Meanwhile, out on a desert hill, Alvin, Savage, and the other Outcasts were riding up a desert area, after they had followed the directions on the map they had been given by the group, they decided to stop to see if they were getting closer. Savage took out the map that he was carrying while Alvin was right next to him, all while they were sitting on their dragons.

"Well, what does the map say?" Alvin asked Savage who was studying the map.

"It seems that we went several miles west, then go up several dunes until you reach a big hill, behind it appears to be some plain, where beyond it are the ruins of an old city, and that should be the place" Savage said. He looked over at Alvin, who looked back at him.

"Don't just stand there" Alvin said to Savage "Go out there and check"

"Yes Alvin" Savage replied. He turned over to two Outcast soldiers that were close to him "Hey you two, get up there and check to see if we really are there" the two soldiers were running up the hill, blind from excitement, as they were shouting things like "We made it!" and whooping for joy. Once they made it to the top of the hill they looked as if they're heads exploded and were whooping in victory.

"I see it!" One of the soldiers replied "I see it!" as they were getting excited, some of the Outcasts, including Alvin and Savage were starting to smile a bit and chuckle.

"I see the ocean" one of the Outcast soldiers yelled up top blinded by excitement, until he thought about what he said and both soldiers turned to each other.

"The ocean?" the other soldier asked the other "Why is that there?" the other soldier shrugged before the second soldier looked back at the rest of the group "It's the ocean" as soon as he said that, the Outcast groups smiles quickly faded and became looks of confusion and disappointment. Alvin was angry the most at what they had just learned.

"The Ocean!?" Alvin said confused "What in the name of Thor?". He slowly turned over to Savage, and both men looked at each other and slowly started to realize that Hiccup and his group may have fooled them "Savage, what do you suppose happened at that stable house when we ambushed them for the map?" Savage looked at the fake map and started to rip it up in anger.

"I knew there was something about this map that was off" Savage said angrily. As they cursed in anger, one of the Outcasts saw two figures out in the distance walking towards them. He took out a spy glass and saw that it was Mildew and Fungus on one of the sand dunes, having escaped from the group and headed back to them.

"Sir" the soldier called out to his boss "I see Mildew coming from the distance, what should we do?" Alvin stopped, looked over to where Mildew was and smiled, knowing that he knows where they are truly heading.

"Bring him over here" Alvin said to the soldier "Looks like our problem has already been solved for us".

"Yes sir" the soldier replied as he rushed off to the sand dune on his dragon to where Mildew and Fungus were, and bring him back over to Alvin.

It had been an hour since the group had found out that Mildew had escaped, but they had already continued their journey, knowing that it wasn't so important to find Mildew, and that they needed to continue in order to reach their destination. As they were riding along, some of the teens were talking amongst each other, and some were talking with their allies as a way to get to know them better. Merida was beside Hansel and Gretel while Hiccup was on the other side of the wagon with Puss, Kitty, and Django. Merida was fascinated by the two witch hunters and was talking with them, especially Gretel so she could learn more about them.

"So I see that even though you two fight witches together, you have your own ways" Merida asked them.

"Yeah we do" Hansel replied "I'm usually the one that deals with the problem straight forward. My sister on the other hand, requires more evidence before it's burnt"

"How many witches have you slayed?" Astrid asked them.

"About 600" Gretel replied. Merida and some of the teens heard this and were amazed.

"Wow" Hiccup said from the other side of the wagon "Looks like you guys have quite the reputation"

"Did you kill all kinds of witches?" Astrid asked them.

"Yeah, they were mostly dark witches, and then we learned that there are some good witches in this world. Not many around, but there are a few" Hansel replied. Suddenly, a clicking noise came from that device again and Hansel knew that it was time for it again "Hold on, stop the wagon for a bit" Astrid nodded and slowed the wagon to a halt while Hansel asked Merida to hold his bag for him as he quickly got off his horse and staggered to a rock that was nearby, looking as if he was about to get sick. Some of the teens including Django saw this and got off to see what was going on.

"Are you ok?" Hiccup asked him.

"What happened" Merida asked, feeling curious as well. Hansel sat down and looked at the others while he was rummaging through his bag.

"When I was a kid" Hansel explained in an exhausted tone "After that witch made me eat so much candy I got sick, then something happened to me" he took out that injector needle that the teens and the others were curious about "So I have to take this injection, every few hours or else I die" he then stabbed the needle into his leg and injected it with the medicine that he needed.

"So that's why you carry that thing around" Hiccup said.

"Yes, I was a little suspicious about that myself" Puss added since he didn't know about that either. After Hansel was finished with his daily injection he placed it back in his bag, got up, and walked back to his horse, where they snapped the reins on the animals and continued their journey along the road.

"Merida, could you come here for a second?" Hiccup asked "I'm trying to see where we need to go next on this map"

"Sure Hiccup" Merida replied. She turned her horse around and went around the back of the wagon to the other side where Hiccup was, while Django decided to move to the side Merida previously was as the two cousins looked at the map.

"So where too next?" Django asked the two.

"Well, it seems that we just keep going down this road, and after a few miles there should be a gorge that we should be a small valley that we should go through that will lead to the next phase of the road" Hiccup explained.

"Alright then" Django said "Let's get to it" Django snapped the reins on his horse, and Merida and the others on their horses did the same as they rode through the desert until they came across the entrance to a small valley that had several trees and plants in the ground.

"So who should go first?" Astrid asked as everybody looked at each other, wondering which will take the job.

"I'll go first" Django replied. He pulled out one of his guns and proceeded to move on his horse in front of the group, who followed behind him, with the people up in the front staying on alert with their weapons ready and looking around the area for any signs of trouble. They all stayed close to the wagon as they moved along, even the Viking teens inside the wagon had several axes and crossbows in their hands in case trouble came along. Some small lizards crawled on the rocks as they moved through the valley. They heard some rustling to the side and turned only to see that it was just a badger trying to catch another animal in the plants. Fishlegs was trembling in fear (as he would most often do in situations like this) Puss and Kitty kept their hands on their swords, and Merida, Hansel, Gretel, and Django had their weapons loaded and ready to fire on any target that would come by them. After moving through the valley, it seemed as if they're wouldn't be any trouble, until suddenly, Merida saw a flash of light coming up from one of the cliffs.

"Hey, what's that?" Merida said to the others, pointing to the flash of light. The others looked up to where she was pointing and they had no Idea what it was as well.

"I don't know" Hiccup replied.

"Do you think somebody is up there?" Kitty asked.

"Could be" Django replied "I'll go up there and check" he got off his horse and pulled out his gun, cocking the barrel in his hand as he went to the bottom of the cliff and started climbing. He looked back and saw the group behind him before he continued to climb. When he almost made it to the top, he pulled his gun out in case there was an intruder up there; he took a deep breath and pulled himself up to the top while pointing his gun out. At the top instead of some kind of intruder, all he saw was a small Jack Rabbit that just looked up at him, then bounced away to somewhere else. Django calmed down and placed the gun back in his holster, knowing there was no trouble here, for now.

"Is there anything up there?!" Puss asked from below.

"No, it's just an animal" Django replied "No trouble up here" he said to them while placing his guns in his holster. Just as he was about to climb down, he looked out and saw a group of riders coming towards them from a hill. Django knew that they were a gang of Bandits based on their weapons and clothing and started to climb down as fast as he could.

"What's wrong?!" Merida asked.

"There's a gang heading straight for us" Django replied as he kept coming down. He didn't hear any reply from the people down below but assumed that they got his message and were getting their weapons ready for the potential attack. He climbed down the mountain as fast as he could, and when he reached the bottom, he heard a click sound and turned to see a gun with two barrels containing two shots pointed straight at his face. What Django was paying attention to more was the person that was holding the gun, the bandit that ruined his life, the man who he had been looking for, the man known as Marcos Cortez. Django let his smile down while Marcos let out a small grin, he wanted to hit Marcos more than anything else, but decided to keep his cool and wait for the right moment.

"End of the line amigo" Marcos said to him. Django looked over and saw that Marcos's gang, and Jack and Jill had already cornered the group and had them surrounded, Django knew that they wanted to fight back, but he didn't want to risk any of them being killed.

"It's alright guys, lay down your weapons" Django called out to the group "He's won this round, for now" The rest of the group were curious as to why he decided to call them off, but decided that they didn't want anybody getting hurt, so they did as Django said and started throwing their weapons on the ground, which were picked up by some of Marcos's men so they could keep an eye on them and the group. He slowly turned to Marcos "You seem to have a way with surprises" he said to him

"And you and your friends have a way of being caught" Marcos added "Come on boys, we have them" the other gang members nodded and moved their weapons in a way to make them start moving forward.

"Where are you taking us?" Merida asked the various gang members

"To the Comandante" Marcos answered "Two of you are what he wants, the rest of you are mine" The group moved along as they continued down the road but in a different direction. Django rode next to Merida and Hiccup, who were curious about his actions.

"Why are we letting him take us?" Merida asked Django silently so they wouldn't be heard.

"There are more of them" Django said silently "I didn't want to risk your group getting killed, besides, they have more of them along with Jack and Jill over there. I'll think of a way out of this but until then we'll just have to play along, understand?" the two teens nodded before Jack and Jill rode up next to them in their wagon and Jack had his gun out.

"Stop talking and keep moving" Jack ordered them. They nodded and continued to ride in silence as Marcos and his large gang led them towards a military base that they were getting closer to.

**Ok, so that's it for now, I know it's a lame plot twist at the end but it was the best I could come up with. I hope you guys liked the chapter, especially the funny scene that I put in the middle, sorry about the brief delay, I just went away for a short time. Fun fact, the injection that Hansel takes is from the movie, where he became diabetic from the candy witch incident and has to take a shot of insulin every few hours. I see that there haven't been a lot of reviews from people who like this story (only one author is still reviewing) so I would feel better if I got some more reviews from you guys as well. Anyway, I hope you liked it and I will update soon, I will see you all for the next chapter. Bye. **


	17. The Spanish Outpost

**Hey guys. So when we last left our group, we saw that Alvin's men finally realized that they were going the wrong way when they realized they had the wrong map, and the group is ambushed out in a small valley by Marcos and his men and proceeded to take the group back to a military base. I hope you guys like the results I made for this chapter. Please review when you are done reading (that goes to any other author who reads this as well), and enjoy the chapter.**

Chapter 16

After a short drive, the group, now being held hostage by Marcos and his men, arrived at the military base, which was a stone brick fortress that appeared to be any kind of military outpost for the Spanish army. The teens in the group looked at it as they were moving closer and closer to the front gates, when a guard came out from up top and looked down at the group.

"Stop" the guard ordered out to both groups "State your business here"

"We have some targets that are wanted by the Comandante himself" Marcos said to the man "He offered us a reward if we brought two of them to him, while my men and I take care of the rest" the soldier continued to look at them, and figured that since this is a deal with the Comandante, they would be here for some serious business.

"Very well then" the soldier said to them "You may enter. Open the doors" suddenly, the front doors started to open, revealing the entrance into the outpost, and the groups proceeded to enter as the doors behind them closed. The group looked around them and saw soldiers in corners guarding the areas in case anything happens, and looking in awe and shock at the dragon that Hiccup was riding, as they may have never seen a dragon before. They all put the horses, dragon, and wagon in a stable area and Marcos and his men had the group surrounded as they led them down a prison corridor to the Comandante's office. As they moved, they saw several of the cells that held prisoners that were weak or couldn't get out. Merida was near one such prison cell when a prisoner's are reached out.

"Food" the prisoner mumbled out which caused Merida to be frightened a little bit and move away from the cells and closer to the group, another prisoner on the other side reached his arm out.

"Water" the prisoner mumbled as he held his arm out. More prisoners held their arms out begging for some things. Some of the teens looked scared while Hansel, Gretel, Django, Puss, and Kitty looked at them in sympathy as they continued down the prison corridor. After they made their way through, the moved down a dark corridor that led to a door that had words on it that read 'Comandante' Marcos went over to the door and gave a quick nock.

"Come in" a voice said from behind the door. Marcos reluctantly pushed the door open and was the first to enter the office, where the Comandante was sitting at his desk "Ah Marcos, did you bring him in?"

"Indeed I did" Marcos replied to him. He motioned for two of his men to come in and bring Puss and Kitty in first for the Comandante. Jack and Jill walked in both holding one of the cats in one hand and their weapons in the other. The Comandante smiled as he saw the two cats before them, he knew that they escaped him before, but this time, they would have nowhere to run from him.

"Well Puss in Boots" The Comandante said with a sneer "It looks like I finally have you right where I want you"

"Please Comandante" Puss said to him "You do not have to do this"

"Quite!" the man barked at the cat before turning to Marcos "So you said that they were with this group. Exactly where are they?" Marcos motioned his other men to come in, and they all walked into the office with all of the group members with them for the Comandante to see for himself. As Merida, Hiccup, Astrid and the others walked in, they weren't exactly what the Comandante expected them to be, and the same probably went for the group who didn't know who the Comandante looked like. Marcos looked over to the Comandante, and he looked at him.

"Alright then, give me the cats" The Comandante said to him.

"The money first" Marcos said "You promised to pay me" The Comandante suddenly remembered the payment that he had promised.

"Ah yes, the money" the Comandante said reaching into his desk and pulled out a bag that was filled with gold coins "Here you are, a bag of gold worth 1000. You did a good job for me" he placed the bag of money on the desk and Marcos took it with a smile on his face as he motioned the outlaw couple to give the two cats to the guards.

"What about the rest of the group?" Marcos asked him.

"Keep them here in this outpost" the Comandante said to him "It's not normal that these kids hold a map to a legend that has been known for many years by the people of Spain. So I want to see for myself if this is true" Marcos simply shrugged as he turned over to his men.

"Bring them into a large area" Marcos ordered his men "We'll have a little talk with them"

"Take those two away" the Comandante ordered his men who were holding two cages that had both cats. They nodded and walked off as Marcos and the Comandante escorted the rest of the group. When they arrived at the room, they were placed in a large cage that would be able to hold all of them. All of the group's belongings were placed on a wooden table, including the group's bags that had their weapons, and their tools. Hiccup and Merida looked at each other and the rest of the group and felt that this Comandante and some of his men needed to understand why they were after the gemstones and why it's important to them. Merida and Hiccup had both their hands on the bars as the Comandante and a few soldiers were looking at their belongings while Marcos was looking at the group.

"Well I do think that map is very special, it couldn't have fallen into the hands of a group of teenagers" Marcos said to the teens "Where did you get it in the first place?"

"It came from our parents attic" Hiccup said "Well, my cousin's attic"

"How would a map end up in a village girl's home?" Comandante asked, believing it to be skeptical.

"Because I'm not a normal village girl" Merida replied "I am Merida, daughter of King Fergus of clan Dunbroch" as she introduced herself, the Comandante and Marcos looked curious, as they were wondering if she really was a princess or not.

"How do we even know that you are a princess?" Comandante asked the girl asked the girl.

"Look at my bag and see for yourselves" Merida said.

"Why should we, it's just a bag" Marcos said to her.

"If you listen to her then you might avoid ending up like the other men that you sent after us" Django said to him.

**( watch?v=A-AxAgxmvP4&list=PL8FF0B58AB9C73DDE)**

After he said that, Marcos looked at Django, even though he didn't know him, and walked over to where he was and looked at him.

"So you're the one that my men keep warning me about" Marcos said to him.

"I am" Django replied. Marcos looked at him and saw the hat that he wore and reminded him of someone but couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"You seem familiar to someone" Marcos said "Who are you?" Django looked at him and knew that he didn't want to reveal himself now.

"Eduardo Celle" Django replied. Marcos looked confused at this since he knew that he was another man that he killed, and the teens looked confused as well, wondering why he didn't give Marcos his real name.

"Eduardo is dead" Marcos replied "I killed him" Django still wanted to play him and spoke the name of a different man.

"Lance Hamlin" Django said, speaking the name of another man that Marcos had killed in the past.

"Hamlin is dead as well" Marcos said.

"You should know better Marcos, you killed them yourself" Django said. Marcos, getting tired of this, delivered a swift punch to Django's face, which was hard but not too hard. Django spat out something as his head came up before Marcos grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

"You didn't seem to answer my question" Marcos said "Who are you?" Django remained silent and Marcos was starting to loss his patience and was about to throw another punch "I said who are you?!" Just before he was about to throw the punch, the Comandante stopped him.

"Stop Marcos" the Comandante said to him "You can take care of him later. Right now I want listen to what these two have to say" he turned over to Hiccup and Merida, who were still behind the bars and they began to explain how and why they were out in the country. They told them how their families have been close for a very long time, how the clans were disagreeing with the Vikings and threating to sever the alliance, and how they came across the map that made them decide to go after them so that they could bring back something to represent both of their families. When they were done talking, the Comandante looked at them, as did Marcos, the Comandante was curious if they really had spoken the truth.

"Are you sure what you have said to me is true?" Comandante asked them.

"Of course it's the truth" Merida replied "Why wouldn't we tell the truth?"

"I don't know Comandante" Marcos said "I don't know if they are speaking the truth, after all, they are very young" the Comandante looked at him and then back at the group.

"They seem honest to me" Comandante said "If they are royalty then I would suggest-" before he could finish however, Marcos pulled him by the neck and pulled out his gun, cocking both barrels and pointing it straight at his neck.

"Royalty or not, that map is worth something" Marcos said to him "And if you even think about ordering your men to release them, I may reconsider that offer I did for you about giving you those cats" the Comandante looked angry and scared at the same time, he had a slight feeling that the teens were telling the truth, but he didn't want Puss in Boots to be set free. Marcos then turned to his boys that were next to him.

"Throw this man in a cell" Marcos ordered his men, who nodded as they grabbed the Comandante. Two guards saw this and were about to rush to his aid, but Marcos's men had crossbows in their hands and fired straight at the soldiers, killing both of them with each shot. The Comandante cursed at him before Marcos turned his attention back to the group as he sneered "I will get to those gemstones no matter how important to you they are" he said to them. He then told four of his guards to watch the group and their belongings, including the map, as he went off to rest a little bit as he did feel tired. Merida and Hiccup looked back at the group who were starting to look worried.

"Well, there goes our chance at getting out of here" Hiccup said.

"I'll say" Astrid added.

"I bet those cats aren't doing as well as we are" Hansel said.

"You're probably right" Django answered.

Later that night, both Puss in Boots and Kitty Softpaws were both locked inside a cage together, both of them by each other's side. Puss was laid up against the wall with all of his belongings stripped and placed on a table, the same with Kitty's belongings. The two cats looked at each other and felt that they needed to escape from the jail cell.

"We need to find a way to get out of this" Puss said to Kitty.

"Yes, but Puss" Kitty replied "Can I say something"

"Of course Kitty" Puss replied, knowing that he will always listen to her.

"Why did we agree to help them? Kitty asked him

"They are family" Puss replied "And family is the most important thing in somebody's life"

" I know it is" Kitty said to him "It's just that... I never had a real family, I never knew who my real family was, and one couple that took me in later took my claws away" Puss knelt down next to her, and put his paw on her shoulder.

"I understand that you have had a hard life, as I have" Puss said "But some of those things inspire you to be what you are today, and the person you help or someone that helps you can be considered family. I helped you, so I'm your family" Kitty smiled, feeling hope in her heart, and gave Puss a kiss on the lips. After she departed, she looked at him.

"Puss, you are by far the most important thing to me" Kitty said to him "And anything you ask of me I'll do, except one thing... I won't watch you die"

"I appreciate that" Puss said "Now how are we going to get out of this jail cell"

"Oh I think that won't be a problem" Kitty replied, Puss looked at her, and she raised one of her paws up to reveal the keys that he had taken from the guard nearby that was sleeping in his chair. Puss smiled at her as he did with her usual tricks that had been used thanks to her soft paws.

"You always had ways with your soft paws" Puss said to her.

"Have I ever not been?" Kitty asked sarcastically before running up to the front door and unlocking the door to the cell. The two cats snuck out quietly, while grabbing their things, and snuck off to free the others.

The rest of the group was standing around doing nothing quietly, as they had nowhere else to go stuck in the large jail cell. Merida and Hiccup were near the front of the cell, just looking off into the distance, thinking about how they'll escape, Django was against the wall thinking the same thing, the twins were messing around with each other as they usually do, Fishlegs was sitting in a scarred and worried position, and everybody else was just doing nothing. Snotlout was being the least patient at this moment as he frantically was running back and forth in the prison cell trying to find a way out or something they could use or anything else that would at least be helpful, Django, Merida, Hansel, Gretel, and Astrid saw this and knew that Snotlout had to calm down sooner or later.

"Ugh, Jing's kriggens help my boab" Merida muttered to herself, getting irritated as well.

"Snotlout would you just give it up already" Hiccup said.

"No" Snotlout said still looking "There's gotta be a hidden door or a passageway or something that can help us"

"We will get out of here soon" Django said to him "We just need time to think" but despite their best efforts, Snotlout was still looking around for something that could be helpful to them.

"You think of a way to get out your way, and I'll do it my way" Snotlout said to them.

"Suit yourself" Hansel said to Snotlout. Some of the guards were getting irritated by Snotlout's panicking and went over to the cage to throw something into the area, which seemed like a piece of meat, which the others dodged, but Snotlout was already hit with it.

"Be quiet in there" the guard said to them "We can't stand it anymore" the guard went back to sit with the other men and Snotlout decided to sit down, but silently continue looking around. As the guards were sitting at one table, a pair of black and white paws came up from behind one of the soldiers, and puffed up before grabbing a soldier by the mouth and knocking him about before quickly dragging him back before the others could notice. The troups saw the soldier gone, as well as the group in the cell and the remaining three were starting to become more alert to their situation. One of the guards picked up his spear and positioned it into a fighting stance.

"Whose there" the guard called out. Just as they were circling around, and shaped moved and hit one of the guards in the head, causing him to fall unconscious onto the ground. The two soldiers left standing were starting to look scarred and knew that they needed to split up and search around for them. They both slowly walked down the area as they had their weapons in their hands, one was shaking in fear, while the other was stiff and looked as if he wasn't afraid of anything. The shaky guard looked around until he was knocked on the head before his unconscious body was pulled into the darkness. The third and final soldier looked about, and the two shapes, who are revealed to be Puss and Kitty jump out and knock the guard to the ground while the rest of the group watched from the cell. Django looked impressed, as did the others as they got up and went to the front of the cage, and looked down on them.

"You two know how to take down enemies without killing them" Django said "Do you know how to use a key as well?"

"Of course we do" Puss said clearly knowing that they want to get out. The two cats pushed the key into the lock and unlocked the door, allowing all of the group to escape the cell they rushed over to the table and grabbed their weapons and belongings, especially Merida and Hiccup as they both got the map and placed it into their bag. Just as they were about to head off, the two cats stopped them.

"Wait, there is someone else that we need to free" Puss said to the group. He and Kitty nodded to each other, and motioned the group to follow them to an area of the prison where the Comandante was being locked in. After Merida dispatched two gang members guarding the cell with her arrows, the cats rushed to unlock the door with the keys. The Comandante looked down and saw what was happening, he didn't like it much that the cats had escaped, but had to get out of the jail cell, and fast.

"What are you doing?" The Comandante said.

"We're helping you escape this jail cell" Puss replied.

"Why are you helping me?" The Comandante asked them.

"Because we feel that it is the right thing to do" Puss replied, after unlocking the door to the cell The Comandante stepped out and grabbed his things, he turned to the group and the group looked back.

"Are you going to throw us back in the jail?" Hiccup asked.

"No, I'm letting you go" The Comandante replied "You helped me out of this jail so I owed you all one, especially you Puss in Boots" The cat smiled after he said that.

"Thank you Comandante" Puss said to the man. Just after he said that, some of Marcos's gang members came into the room and saw that they had escaped.

"Hey, stop right there" the gang member called out. Django then whipped out his guns and fired at them, hitting a few of them and causing the rest to scatter.

"We have to leave now" Hiccup said. He turned to the Comandante "Where are the stables.

"Follow me" The Comandante said as he led them through the cell areas to the stables where Toothless and the other horses were waiting. Toothless jumped out of the stable and landed on Hiccup, purring and licking his face in excitement.

"Yeah I missed you two bud" Hiccup said "But listen we have to get out of here now" Suddenly, just as they were getting ready to leave, and arrow flew through the air and hit Astrid in the lower side area, she screamed in pain and collapsed, causing everyone to turn and see that their friend has taken a bad wound.

"ASTRID!" Hiccup yelled worried and shocked. Hansel saw the gang member and raised his shotgun, cocking it and shooting the attacker dead. Hiccup rushed over and saw the wound that Astrid had taken.

"Get her in the wagon now" Hiccup ordered, Merida and Gretel ran over, picked up Astrid and carried her into the wagon, where they started ripping the bottom side of the shirt off to observe the wound and make sure that she doesn't move to make it worse.

"Are you going to be alright Comandante?" Puss asked the man.

"Yes go, I will see how long my men and I can hold them off" the Comandante replied.

"Thank you" Merida replied to the man.

"For what? The Comandante asked her.

"For believing us" Merida answered. After they were all set, Django looked in front of the group.

"Alright, let's go" Django called out, who snapped the reins on his horse and rode out of the area, the others followed behind him and the entire group soon escaped the outpost.

Marcos went over to the front entrance of the outpost to see if he can catch the group, but he saw that they were already gone. Just then, he heard the sound of a click behind him, and turned to see the Comandante aiming a crossbow straight at him. Marcos simply put his hands up as he slowly walked towards him.

"Are you still mad about our little throw off of the deal?" Marcos asked.

"I wanted to end this nicely" the Comandante said to him "But you leave me with no choice" Marcos stopped in front of him with the arrow pointed straight at his head "You may be the top killer in the land, but nobody breaks off a deal with me. I'll end your sorry life and make sure that you answer for your crimes. So you go straight to hell senior"

"After you senior" Marcos replied before he twirled around, grabbing the tip of the crossbow and pushing it down before grabbing his knife and delivering it to the back of the Comandante's neck. Marcos simply looked on before releasing his hand on the knife and bringing his arm down to his side, as The Comandante collapsed to the ground.

**( watch?v=xU7TPqMNfG8&list=PL8FF0B58AB9C73DDE&index=21)**

Marcos went back over to the side and looked on at the rest of the outpost as his gang members were raiding and attacking the place, killing guards and preventing prisoners that tried to slip out from the commotion from escaping.

"Funny isn't it" Marcos was saying to the Comandante "People must know that they will all die someday, but they live as if they never will… damn funny" he then heard the sounds of hands clasping to the ground and saw the Comandante, still alive, trying to crawl away and get out using as much strength he had left. Marcos simply walked up to The Comandante, knelt down, and pushed the knife deeper into the wound until he stopped moving. Marcos looked straight at his corpse, and pulled the knife out of the area that he lodged it in before looking at his face.

"You lived long enough, serving your country" Marcos said to him before he cleaned the blood off the knife before he placed it back in his belt. Several other gang members came up and Marcos looked over to them.

"We've rounded up every guard or escaped prisoner that have tried to fight back or escape" the guard said "What should we do with them"

"Let me see them first" Marcos said to him. He walked over through the tunnels to where all of those that tried to oppose the attack were lined up and against a wall. After thinking for a moment, Marcos decided that they didn't want anybody to follow them.

"Kill them, there is no point in any of them living now" Marcos said to the gang members "And when you're done, take any weapon in the armory that might be useful"

"Yes sir" the man replied. As Marcos walked to find a horse, the rest of the gang proceeded to execute those that were up against the wall, making sure that they wouldn't be followed or tracked at all.

**Ok, so that's it for now, this might be the longest chapter I have ever worked on, but it was worth it. I hope you guys liked it, especially that little moment between Puss and Kitty that I decided to add, which I felt like doing because I just think that they are both cute as a couple. I won't reveal what's going to happen to Astrid, but all I can say is that she is not going to die. The next update may or may not take a while, depending on how busy going back to school will be, but I will not stop until this story makes it to the end. As always, please review and I will see you all next time. Bye.**


	18. Seeking Aid in San Ricardo

**Hey there. So when we last left the group, they had been briefly captured by Marcos and his men and taken to a Spanish military outpost, they escape, but not before Astrid is wounded on her lower side. I have been back to school lately so I don't know how often I will update, but they will be soon. Anyway, I hope you guys like the chapter and make sure you review when you're done.**

Chapter 17

**( watch?v=FmpKwHDP3ZU&list=PLCBA76FF7AA688100&index=5, 0:00 – 0:48)**

The group was riding through the dirt road far away from the military compound, but they were facing a big problem. Astrid still had the arrow deep in her side, and Hiccup was at the reins while the others, including Kitty Softpaws, were looking after Astrid and making sure that the arrow doesn't move over the jittering of the wagon. Outside, Merida and the others guarding the wagon were keeping their eyes on the road while they held up hopes for their friend. Merida moved over close to the side and looked at Hiccup, then back at the inside of the wagon.

"How is she doing" Merida asked worried.

"I don't know" Hiccup replied "The tip of the arrow is deep in her skin. I'm not sure about removing it since I'm not sure if it will make the wound worse or make the bleeding worse"

"We're going to have to find a doctor to see if it can be removed" Django said.

"Yeah, but that means that we'll have to stop somewhere if there is a doctor" Hansel said.

"Well where can we find someplace with a doctor out here?" Fishlegs asked nervously, as the group was thinking, Puss saw a familiar sight up ahead and knew the right place for them to stop, and someone that would agree to give them help.

"I know someone that can help us" Puss said to the group. They all turned over to him, and Kitty went to the side of the wagon and poked her head out.

"Who is that" Hiccup replied "And where?"

"This way, the town is close by" Puss replied. He steered his horse in the direction that was closets to this town, Kitty went back into the wagon to watch over Astrid, and everybody else turned and followed Puss. After moving down the dirt road and passing by some trees, they came across a stone arch that was followed by a long stone bridge that led into a town. They all slowed their horses down, and slowly approached the arch with the intent of crossing the bridge into the town. On the top front side of the arch, the group noticed that there was an engraving that read 'San Ricardo' and they assumed that it was the name of the town. When they were crossing the bridge, they made sure that the horses went up front, followed by the wagon that trailed behind it, while Hiccup told Toothless to travel at a safe distance so that they would not scare anybody when they first arrive into town. Django, Hiccup, and Merida looked over to Puss, and probably knew that this was the town that he had told them about when he told his story around the fire.

"This where you grew up" Hiccup asked.

"Si senior" Puss replied "Imelda can give us any spare room that she has in the orphanage, and there is a doctor in this town that can see to your friends wound"

"We can also refill on supplies and food here" Django said. They all crossed the stone bridge and made it into the town. They all looked around and saw all of the homes, stands, and other things that surrounded them, and they knew that this would be a perfect town to stop in.

"There's the orphanage over there" Kitty said pointing to where the building was.

"Alright guys, let's stop by those stables" Hiccup said. They moved their horses to a nearby stable house that was right next to the orphanage, and the rest got off so they could prepare to carry Astrid out of the wagon. Suddenly, they heard the doors to the orphanage open, and showed a woman walking out with a crate in her hands. She was a simple innocent woman who appeared to be middle aged with a usual workers dress. Puss smiled and got off of his horse and walked over silently to the woman who wasn't looking.

"Uh, meow" Puss said which caught the woman's attention. She turned around to face that familiar voice and looked to see a familiar orange cat with a clavier hat and boots that she had known for a very long time.

"Mama" Puss said to the woman, who soon smiled.

"Pequeño" the woman replied before kneeling down and giving the cat a hug "It is good to see you again"

"It is good to see you as well" Puss said to her.

"Why have you come back here" The woman asked him.

"I have been with a group of travelers" Puss explained to her "We have someone in our group that is badly wounded and needs a place for her wounds to be treated" Imelda's smile lowered and saw that the group that he was with was trying to carry someone out of the back of the wagon. The group looked and saw the woman, who came over to see what the problem, when she saw the arrow that was in one of their friends, she gasped, and knew that they will definitely need some help. Django looked over to the woman and went over to reassure her.

"Don't worry she's fine, just wounded" Django said to the woman "But we're probably going to have to rest if she needs the arrow out and wound cleaned properly. Do you have a spare room available?"

"Of course I do" the woman said "Just get her out of the wagon and bring her in first, and I will make sure there is a room and bring the doctor down here" She went off to go find a spare room in the orphanage, but Hiccup and Merida looked and felt that she was somebody that Puss has told them about.

"So are you Imelda?" Hiccup asked the woman. Imelda briefly turned around.

"Yes I am" she replied "How did you know?"

**( watch?v=bJXhURCFrww&list=PLCBA76FF7AA688100&index=10, 1:26 - 1:57)**

"Puss has told us about you" Merida replied. Imelda smiled a bit before she turned around and rushed inside the orphanage to find a room, while the group carefully placed Astrid on a platform and carried it over to the doors to the orphanage where they followed Imelda towards the stairs. Most of the children that were still about looked upon the group in curiosity, and Imelda had to go over there and tell the children that this was an important matter for a group of travelers and that they should not interfere. They went up the stairs to where the bed rooms are and went down the hall where the spare room was. Once they were inside the room, which had a bed, drawer, and window at the edge of the room, they carefully took Astrid off of the platform and placed her on the bed, while she winced in pain as she could still feel the arrow in her side.

"Don't worry Astrid" Hiccup said "You're gonna be ok"

"Are you doing alright?" Merida asked her.

"Yeah, I feel pain in my side, but it's ok, I've been shot at before, I'm a soldier" Astrid said before she winced in pain again.

"Somebody gets a pale of water and a few pieces of cloth" Django said. Hansel went out to the well outside of town with a bucket in his hands to fetch the water while Hiccup bent down to look at Astrid's wound, with the arrow still in it. It was bleeding a little bit, and they felt that if they ripped the arrow out, the bleeding would only get worse. Later, Hansel came back in with a bucket filled with water and placed it on the floor, where Merida placed a cloth around the wound so that she can dry up the blood, which caused Astrid to calmly cry out in pain. Hiccup looked worried, as did the other Viking teens and worried that Astrid might not make it. Then, Imelda came into the room.

"Is the doctor here?" Merida asked the woman.

"Si senorita" she replied. Then, a man came in, who was the town's doctor, and took a seat on a chair right next to the bed.

"Alright then, let's have a look" the doctor said. He bent down and looked at how deep the arrow was in Astrid's side. He looked at the wound carefull, examining it before turning to the other teens.

"Can it be removed without making it worse?" Hiccup asked him.

"Yes, first I'm going to have to cut the lower part of the arrow off so that I can carefully remove the tip" the doctor explained to them "Immediately after I remove the tip, I'll need to put wet cloth on it to prevent any further bleeding, sew the wound, and wrap it up. It won't take long" He then saw a knife on the table and picked it up, eyeing the wooden part of the area where he slowly started to saw it off with the knife until the wooden part of the arrow came off. Then, the doctor took out a pair of tweezers and slowly started to clutch the tip of the arrow. Merida and Hiccup had some of the wet cloths ready when it came out. Then slowly, the tip of the arrow was starting to come out of the side. Astrid cried out in pain, but knew that they were going to take care of it. Soon, the metal piece was out and blood was dripping from the open area and Hiccup handed the doctor the wet cloths where he proceeded to dry the blood out of the wound.

"I will need some privacy to finish the rest of this procedure" the doctor said to the group.

"Of course sir" Merida replied "Come on then, let's get out and let the doctor do his work" the group then started to clear out as the doctor went back to stitching the wound up. As they were outside, they saw Imelda come up to them.

"So why would young travelers like you come out here?" Imelda asked them.

"We can explain, but we need somewhere to sit" Django said "A table perhaps"

"Of course, just one moment" Imelda said. She led them down the stairs and through a hallway while Fishlegs stayed behind so that he could let the group know if Astrid is ok. They walked out to a large table that was near a large field that was probably for the children. They all sat down in the chairs and Imelda, Puss, and Kitty came sitting on the chairs last.

"So tell me" Imelda said to them "Why have you traveled so far?" After she asked that, Hiccup and Merida proceeded to tell her how their families were facing troubles, how they had found the map that made them decided to take the journey, and how they have made it here so far. Hiccup even took out the map so that Imelda could see it and know what they were talking about and was amazed like many others "I had heard the legend like many others have" Imelda said "But I wouldn't think that it could actually be real"

"Yeah, we came out all this way just to find them" Hiccup said before rolling the map back up and putting it back in his bag "And when we do, Berk will be considered part of the family"

"This is a very brave and noble thing that you two are doing" Imelda said to them "And I am glad that my son is here to help you" she stroked Puss's fur, in which he replied with a purr. Suddenly, Imelda let out a yelp in fright as she saw a big black beast was looking over them, Hiccup knew that she would be frightened, and let out his hand to calm her down.

"It's ok, he's not going to hurt you" Hiccup said as the dragon came into the field and towards them "Toothless, down" the dragon obeyed and lowered his stance and sat down. Imelda looked amazed and looked over at Hiccup "It's a long story" Hiccup said to her "He's with us" after a moment of explaining how back on Berk he was able to train dragons, Imelda seemed more calm and returned to her seat. At that moment, Fishlegs came out who stopped for a moment to catch his breath.

"Guys, the doctor is done with Astrid" Fishlegs said. Soon, the doctor came out and looked at the group.

"Well, how is she" Hiccup said.

"She's fine" the doctor told them "She will just need to rest for a couple of days before you all set out again so that the wound will get use to the stitches"

"Why not just go now" Snotlout asked "You said that she's fine"

"Yes she is, but she cannot move her body around for a day or two or else the stitches will fall out and the wound will be messed up again" the doctor explained "She needs time to rest and let the stitches get use to the wound so that it won't hurt as much"

"He's right" Django replied "Besides, we do need to refresh on our food and supplies and according to the map our destination will take a short amount of time"

"Alright then, we can stay near the stables and refresh our supplies" Hiccup said to the group "We'll leave as soon as Astrid heals back up and we have everything we need"

"I'll be happy to help your friend in any way if she needs it" Imelda said to them.

"Thank you Imelda" Merida said. Soon the group got up and went back either to check the horses or to see how Astrid was doing.

Later that night, the group had already found their spots for the wagon and the horses in the stable. Imelda had offered them a place to sleep, but they declined respectfully and politely and insisted that they would be fine out near the stables, which the group placed sleeping mats and hammocks inserted in the stables, which were across from the orphanage. Hiccup, Fishlegs, Gretel, and Kitty were keeping an eye on Astrid while the rest of the group was downstairs with Imelda and the children, who were heading off to bead. Merida smiled as she watched Imelda hustle the children to bead, which reminded her of when her mother used to try to get her three younger brothers to bed when they didn't feel like it. She then saw a young girl with a nightgown and a doll in her hands that was looking scarred as she was walking down the hall, so Merida got up and decided to walk over to the girl so she could see what the matter was. She got up to the girl and knelt down next to her who looked up at Merida.

"What's the matter?" Merida asked her.

"I'm scarred" the girl said to her "I never liked to sleep in the dark"

"Well come on then, I'll walk you to your room and get you to sleep" Merida said. She led the girl down the hall, and once they made it, Merida saw that it was a small room with several other girls sleeping in their own beds. Merida found the empty bed that belonged to the girl and led her to it through the dark, with the moonlight guiding her, and she got in as soon as they made it. The girl still felt scarred and Merida decided to stay with her and comfort her until she fell asleep. She petted her hair and calmly spoke to her.

"No one will get you" Merida softly spoke to her "You'll always be safe" soon she started to sing a little song.

"_Little baby, hear my voice  
I'm beside you, O maiden fair_

_Our young Lady, grow and see  
your land, your own faithful land_

_Sun and moon, guide us  
to the hour of our glory and honor_

_Little baby, our young Lady  
Noble maiden Fair"_

After singing the song that her mother had sung to her when she was a girl, the little girl finally fell asleep, Feeling relaxed and safe. Merida smiled before she got up and quietly headed for the door to avoid waking up the rest of the children that were still sleeping. Imelda saw the whole thing and smiled as Merida came out.

"Thank you" Imelda simply said to Merida. The princess simply nodded in reply and headed down the stairs where the others were sleeping.

**Alright, so that's it for now. There will be some more action in the next chapter; I just wanted an emotional and sweet moment in this chapter, which I hope you guys will appreciate. The town of San Ricardo and the character Imelda are from "Puss in Boots", and I just felt like adding it into the story. Oh, and F.Y.I. I'm no medical expert, but I did read about some people receiving arrow wounds and I tried to make Astrid's wound and the treatment as accurate as I could. The song that is heard is "Noble Maiden Fair" from "Brave", which I think would be a perfect song for Merida to sing to comfort a child. I decided to put the English translation in because I probably didn't feel like writing it in Gaelic (the language that the song is sung in the film); here is the link for the song: watch?v=5CgJInUF7-Y. Anyway, please review, I will update soon, see you guys later.**


	19. San Ricardo Shootout

**Ok, so here is the next chapter. So when we last left, the group had made a stop in the town of San Ricardo, Puss's hometown, where they would be able to treat Astrid's wound. There, they meet Imelda, Puss's adoptive mother and head of the San Ricardo Orphanage, and settle down and wait for Astrid's wound to heal. I'm glad that you guys have been following the story, and like I said, this chapter will have some action, you just wait and see. Enjoy.**

Chapter 18

The small time that the group had spent in San Ricardo was a very quiet time, but they had picked up a lot of attention from some of the towns people and the children at the orphanage. Over the few days, Merida and Hiccup recounted each of their own stories, which the children were so fascinated by and loved to listen to them, and amazed by Toothless, which Hiccup let them pet and take a look at. Django showed the group what his weapons were and how they functioned (as did Hansel and Gretel), and even did a demonstration with the group and some of the people watching. Astrid was still recovering from her wounds, as she had to stay in Bed for most of the day since she had a bandage wrapped around her waist, letting the stitches work their way into her wound. She did have a view of the whole town from the window in her room, and saw what went on from above, including the demonstration of Django's weapons. She would have the usual company of Imelda or members of the group that would stop by and see how she was doing, and while it was hard for her to move out of her bed, since she was conscious of the stitches, she was still doing pretty fine. Puss was also taking the time to relax as well, as he was back in the town he was raised in, commuting with the group, and resting in the top of the bell tower where he and Humpty use to hang out as kids, with Kitty there to be with him in their private moments they shared up there.

One day, the group was getting ready to leave, Astrid's stitches had gotten use to the wound, and would eventually go away, as the doctor had mentioned to them some time earlier. The group was packing their belongings into the wagon, and some were rushing back to the orphanage to grab a few things that they would need and things that they couldn't leave without. Merida and Hiccup personally thanked Imelda for everything that she had done for them and said their goodbyes, especially Puss, who bid a thank you and a farewell to his mother before joining the others on several wooden tables that were outside of the towns local bar, where the group decided to relax a bit and refresh themselves with a drink or two before getting back on the road. Django sat with both of his legs up with a pint of beer that was about half empty, with his hat shading his eyes from the bright, hot sun. Hansel, Snotlout, and Tuffnut had a pint as well, while everybody else decided to take a drink of water from the well, which they had poured into their mugs.

"It was good that we stopped here" Merida said to the group.

"Indeed it has" Puss replied "My mama was grateful of helping us"

"Yeah, she is a nice woman" Astrid replied "I just hope that this is all worth it"

"I think it will be" Hiccup said "According to the map, if we travel for a little while longer across this area, we should make it to the ruins of the city"

"And we'll finally find those gemstones" Merida said "Then the clans will see that we truly are a family" Hiccup and the others briefly smiled at the thought, knowing that the reason that they came out here in the first place was for family.

"Well, with this amount of supplies, and with our protection you guys are as good as safe" Django said to them. Suddenly, a shot rang out and hit a pot that was close to them. The group suddenly reacted and ran to find cover, as they knew that their pursuers had somehow found out where they are. Merida, Gretel, Astrid, and Kitty took cover behind several crates while the others took cover behind pillars, stands, or any other place that might be considered safe.

**( watch?v=0jrsOIJnfvY, 0:00 – 4:09)**

"Looks like they found us" Astrid said to the women in the group she was with.

"No kidding" Merida replied Django looked up from his hiding place, with both guns in his hands, for any signs of any enemies. He noticed a few of Marcos's gang members were moving around, looking through the town to find them, which made it difficult to get them into a visible area. He had to think of a way to distract them so that he knows where they are, then a thought came into his mind and he turned to Puss, who was next to him.

"Puss" Django said to the cat in boots "Run to the other side so we can see where these guys will be shooting from" Snotlout looked at the now deserted area then turned back to Django.

"Why does it have to be me?" Puss asked him.

"Well who else then" Django said. He turned to the other hiding group members that looked at each other from hearing Django's remark, and they all turned to Puss, knowing that cats are pretty fast animals and he could maneuver their shots with ease. Puss took a sigh, and turned to the large open area that was in front of them, and dashed out. Almost immediately, the gang members started firing their arrows and their muskets at Puss, but since he is a cat, he moved fast around the area, which made it harder for them to get a perfect shot. Django saw the moment, knowing where they were firing from and stood up from his hiding place, and taking perfect shots with his guns, hitting one bandit while the others scattered.

"Split up!" Django said to the group, the girls in the group went their own way while the rest of the group scattered. Everybody managed to grab their weapons, which they kept with them at the tables as the enemy gang started to look throughout the town to find each group. Django, Hiccup, Hansel, Puss, and Fishlegs moved through the streets to a cover area. Django sees a gang member with a crossbow and fires, hitting the man and causing him to fall. Hiccup bends over and picks up the crossbow and a couple of arrows from the dead man as they proceed to find any other enemies to deal with.

Meanwhile the females were looking around for cover as well. Gretel had her crossbow with her, Astrid had a sword, Merida had her bow and arrows, and Kitty had her dagger which conveniently can extend into a sword.

"How did they find us?" Astrid said.

"They must have followed our tracks" Gretel said "And I think that those other guys won't be too behind either"

"Well we can't stay here that's for sure" Merida said. She soon spotted Hiccup and had an Idea "I'll go get Hiccup. He, Astrid and I will go fetch the wagon and horses"

"We'll keep them occupied" Kitty replied before giving a nod to Gretel, who nodded back to the cat as Gretel raised her crossbow and Kitty extended her sword. Merida and Astrid went over to Hiccup, and told them that they needed to get out and get the wagon and horses.

"Alright, we should go anyways" Hiccup said "I have to get to Toothless"

"Astrid and I will keep you covered" Merida said as she notched an arrow into her bow, and Astrid raised her sword. The stables were right across the street from them and they knew that they would be shot at and they had to move fast if they would be able to get there.

"Alright on the count of three, we dash out to see if we can make it to the stables" Astrid said "If anybody fires, we go find cover. You ready?" She turned to Merida who nodded, and Hiccup did the same. Then, they all rushed out of the area and headed for the stables while Merida fired an arrow at any attackers that were trying to shoot them down. When they saw that too many were firing on them, they took cover behind a stand where they could not be seen and saw that the stand was on wheels that could be moved. Astrid and Merida snuck under the front of the wagon and began pushing it with all their strength towards the stables, with bandits firing arrows and throwing knifes, which were ineffective against the wooden surface of the stand.

Meanwhile, Django was still with Fishlegs, Hansel and Puss, shooting one bandit as they moved through the alleyway. He noticed that several bandits had found their way onto the rooftops which he knew would give them an advantage as to where the group members are and where to shoot. He spotted a pile of barrels that went up to the rooftop of one building and he had an Idea.

"I'm going up the rooftops to see if I can take care of some men up there" Django said to the two guys and cat.

"Well good" Hansel replied "We're having enough trouble down here" Django nodded and ran over to the barrels where he climbed up the pile to the top of the roof. Once he was up there, he saw a bandit who turned to him, only for Django to whip out his gun and shoot the man dead, before spying for any other of Marcos's bandits that were on the roof, and for Marcos himself.

Gretel and Kitty were running through the streets, finding a building for cover as Gretel shot a bandit with her crossbow while Kitty used her knife to cut down another that was charging straight at them with her knife/sword. They found an empty hut that they could take cover in and ran for the door that was already open, and closed it behind them. Gretel looked out the window with her crossbow out while Kitty looked around and saw that this had another small door that was at the other end of the room. Gretel turned to Kitty while she still had the crossbow aimed out the window.

"Do you think we'll be able to get out of this alive" Kitty asked Gretel.

"I heard some of those kids are getting the horses and the wagon" Gretel said "And believe me, my brother and I have been through a lot worse than this"

"You hunt witches for a living, what else have you faced that was worse?" Kitty remarked to the woman, who chuckled a bit at the comment. Suddenly, through the other door, they heard a scream followed by a figure being thrown through the door backwards and crashing onto the floor. Both of the females looked over to see Snotlout all worn out and on the floor, as if he was in the middle of a fist fight. The two females rushed over to him to see if he was ok as he looked at both of them.

"Are you ok?" Gretel asked him.

"Do I look like I'm ok" Snotlout said sarcastically. He turned back to where he was thrown through and yelped as his attacker, a big buff gang member wielding a hammer, came in through the door. He threw his hammer down to hit Snotlout but the Viking teen quickly rolled to the side and dodged the hammer as it came down to the ground. Gretel aimed her crossbow and the man, but he threw the hammer up and knocked it out of her hands. He attempted to throw a punch at Gretel, but she dodged it and sent a punch into the man's face. The man stumbled back a little bit, but he didn't feel like going down just yet. Then, Kitty pounced into the man's face and attempted to hang onto him only for him to grab her off his face and throw her to the side of the room hard against the stone wall. He again grabbed Snotlout by the neck and threw him aside to a table that was in the room and was about to finish him off, with his hammer, but Gretel tackled him and the hammer was thrown to the side of the room barely missing Kitty. He grabbed Gretel by the pony tail and threw her off before grabbing Snotlout again and smashing him through a window while hanging onto him. Coincidently, Django was right near the building on the rooftops and turned to see Snotlout struggling as he was being harassed by a bandit. Snotlout saw Django and tried desperately to get help.

"Hey, hey!" Snotlout yelled trying to get his attention "Help me out here!" Django didn't want to occupy any more time with this while he was on the rooftop so he just took a knife out and attempted to throw it over to Snotlout. He tossed the knife, only for it to land on the ground out of Snotlout's reach before Django rushed off to take care of other bandits that were on the roof. "Aw come on!" Snotlout yelled in frustration before he was pulled back in by the bandit. Gretel saw her crossbow on the floor and started to crawl towards it while Snotlout was keeping the bandit occupied. She grabbed the crossbow and aimed it straight at the bandit.

"Duck!" Gretel called out to Snotlout. The Viking heard her and ducked down as she said right before she delivered a single crossbow straight into the man's head. Snotlout then pushed the man off him as he collapsed to the ground. The front doors busted open, and the three of them turned, expecting to see more bandits. Turns out it was just Hansel, Puss, and Fishlegs who were looking for them.

"Are you guys alright?" Django asked them.

"I'm fine, if it hadn't been for them" Snotlout said motioning to Gretel and Kitty. Just then, Ruffnut and Tuffnut entered the room through the door and saw what had happened.

"Sorry, did we miss anything" Tuffnut asked them. Snotlout looked at them, clearly feeling angry.

"Feel free to jump in anytime" Snotlout said to Tuffnut.

"Sorry, we just got distracted by this knife that we found on the ground" Tuffnut said holding up the knife that Django had threw over and Snotlout failed to catch "We like sharp things"

"We don't have time for this" Puss said.

"Yeah, they probably have the horses and the wagon by now" Hansel said. He assumed correctly as he saw the wagon moving down the streets while dodging several arrows and knives that were being thrown.

"Let's go" Gretel said as the group then ran for the wagon and the horses. Hiccup was on Toothless, Merida was on Angus, Astrid was on the wagon, and the rest of the horses were behind. Everyone got in the wagon while some of them (Hansel, Gretel, Puss, and Kitty) got on the horses, however they did notice that there was one horse left but no rider on it.

Meanwhile, Django was still on the rooftops, looking for Marcos while continuing to take on enemy bandits. He saw that the group was riding down the streets with his own horse behind them, and knew that it was time to get out. He ran across the rooftops, dodging enemies, until he made it to the edge of the roof and jumped off and onto his horse. He rode his horse up to the front of the group, and then he saw Marcos on one of the roofs, and knew that he had missed his chance, but knew that he and his boys would be coming after them so he continued to ride so that Marcos and his other men could follow them out of the town. Soon, the group was riding across the bridge and out of the town out into a vast desert canyon that was ahead of them. They saw the bandits were following right behind them, they then saw witches in the sky and other dragons flying after them and knew that they're top pursuers had finally caught up to them, as they started riding as fast as they could.

Meanwhile, the town and people of San Ricardo were coming out of their hiding places and cleaning up the mess that had been left behind from the shootout. Imelda, who was keeping the children hidden in the Orphanage, came out of the building looked around the small wreckage, and saw the group riding off.

"May god be with you my pequeno" Imelda said to Puss who was riding away with the group as they were being chased.

**Alright, so that's it for now. I hope you guys liked the chapter, and there will be a huge chase scene in the next chapter that I know you guys will like. Anyway, please review as always and I will update as soon as I can. Until next time, see you guys later.**


	20. Three Way Canyon Chase

**Hey there readers, so here I am with the next chapter, I hope you guys are excited, because this will feature a massive chase scene with tones of action. I'm glad to see that some of you are following the story, and I appreciate that, and this story will be nearing the end soon, so keep tuned in. Also, if anyone had noticed that the last chapter was the chapter before, it means I had just made a mistake and posted the wrong chapter, but I've fixed it so you can read the chapter I intended to put up right before you start to read this. Anyway, make sure you review after you're finished and enjoy this exciting chapter.**

Chapter 19

As the group rode fast through the desert, Outcasts and witches were chasing them from the skies while Jack and Jill in their big wagon and Marcos and his army of Bandit's were chasing them from the ground, all wanting to get their hands on that map and make it to those gemstones. Hiccup, Django, Merida, Hansel, Gretel, Puss, and Kitty all rode in the front while the Viking teens were in the wagon, with some of them looking out the back of the wagon for their pursuers. So far, the group inside the wagon had crossbows, swords and axes in their hands while everybody else had their own weapons with them. The chase went through the flat desert surface before taking a turn into a vast canyon where the chase continued. The Vikings inside the wagon fired arrows at the groups above and behind them, but had some effect against them. Meanwhile, the pursuers were firing at each other as well to make sure that they wouldn't get in each other's way. Marcos was firing his gun up into the air, hoping to hit either the witches or some of the Outcasts dragons with it, Jack and Jill were firing cannons that were mounted in their wagon from the side of the canyon to get a good aim with every single shot while keeping up with Marcos and his other men. The Outcasts, including Alvin, Savage, and Mildew were firing arrows down on the bandits, and at the witches, who in return, shot fireballs and destructive spells at their competitors while they were still airborne with Vesta leading up front while her sisters trailed behind her.

"Looks like we'll have a lot to take care of" Django said.

"No kidding" Astrid said "Does anybody have an Idea or are we just going to shoot randomly until they go away?"

"You guys take these guys below, I'll see if I can take on Alvin and those witches up in the sky" Hiccup said before he looked at Toothless, who knew what he was thinking.

"Just make sure you save the head witch for us" Hansel said to Hiccup.

"Oh don't worry about that" Hiccup replied. In a moment, Toothless jumped into the air and spread his wings out, and the two were off to take care of their enemies that were flying above them. Django saw smooth dirt ram that led to the side of the mountain and started to have an Idea. He rode up the the smooth ramp until his horse was on the side of the canyon overlooking the canyon from the side.

**( watch?v=0gLTQ2Y2I1Q)**

As he looked out into the canyon, he saw that Marcos and his bandits, who were chasing them from behind, were in perfect sight. Django whipped out both of his guns, and started firing, shooting down some of Marcos's gang with one gun, while shooting several Outcasts off of their dragons with the other, and shooting a witch or two. Merida moved back to the side a little to take a good aiming position and started drawing arrows. The first she took out of her quiver she held in her mouth while she took out another arrow and fired, hitting an Outcast off his dragon. She let go of the other arrow, notched it into the bow and fired, this time hitting one of Marco's bandits and she continued to fire her arrows. Hansel and Gretel got out their weapons and started firing them as well, with arrows, fire balls and bullets flying at the pursuers from behind and from the side, while shots were being fired from the enemy as well as the chase continued. Hiccup was flying on Toothless, who was firing plasma bolts at the witches and at the outcasts while they continued to dodge witches spells and flying arrows. The teens in the wagon fire the arrows on the crossbows that they have either up or down on their pursuers, while Astrid still kept her hands on the reins. Suddenly, they felt a bump on the side of the wagon and saw Jack and Jill in their wagon right next to them.

"You think you can outrun us" Jill yelled out at Astrid from their wagon.

"I'd like to see you try and get us" Astrid replied. Soon, the two wagons started to race each other while they were still avoiding the other pursuers. Meanwhile up in the sky, Hiccup and Toothless continued to dodge their enemies while taking them down with plasma blasts and with a knife that Hiccup kept at his side. Suddenly, he saw several sharp tips fly by him and he turned to see Mildew on his Nadder with a knife in his hand, his staff in the other, and Fungus right next to him, just sitting there as usual.

"Going somewhere Hiccup" Mildew said with a grin. Hiccup knew that he was probably about to settle a score with the old man and knew that now would be his chance.

"Actually I am" Hiccup said with a smirk. Toothless then swooped down and Mildew started to follow him as they moved their way through the narrow rocks and stone ledges in the canyon. What Mildew didn't know was that Hiccup was leading him through so that when the right moment came, he would make him crash. He turned and saw that Mildew was still after him. He thought to himself "For an old man he doesn't make a pretty bad rider"

"You don't seem to stop don't you Hiccup" Mildew called out to him "To bad that you'll have to stop once we have you"

"Actually, I think you're the one that's about to stop" Hiccup called out to Mildew. The old man looked confused as Hiccup saw a rock ledge in front of him and knew that now was the time. He looked at Toothless, who then swooped down avoiding the stone ledge while Mildew looked in confusion. The old man sees the stone ledge but realizes too late as his dragon smashes into the ledge and tumbles down while Mildew is thrown off the dragon and falls deep down into the desert ground with a hard and violent thud, killing him instantly. Hiccup winced, feeling disgusted, but knew that the old man probably deserved it anyway as he flew off on Toothless to catch up with the others while Fungus trotted up to Mildew's lifeless body and sniffed it.

Meanwhile, Astrid was still racing Jack and Jill with their wagon going as fast as the horses on the wagon could while trying to avoid being captured by the two Outlaws. They bumped into the wagon again, causing it to shake, and Puss was starting to wobble around the side of the wagon and seemed like he was going to fall off. Kitty ran over to grab him, only to be pulled down as both cats got up and caught the side of a wagon, but that Wagon was Jack and Jill's. The two outlaws noticed this, and pulled their wagon back, bringing the two cats onto their wagon. Jack still steered the wagon while Jill took out a metal prod. Puss and Kitty drew their swords, and a sword fight ensued on the top of the wagon while the chase progressed. Merida was still firing her arrows, which were starting to run low, and saw several Outcasts were chasing her on their dragons. She fired her arrows hitting them all and catching up with the wagon. It was then that Merida realized that she was out of arrows and that she had used up the ones that were in her quiver. She rode right next to Gretel, who was still firing her crossbow while Hansel still fired his shot gun.

"I need arrows" Merida said to her ally's "I'm all out"

"Use some of mine" Gretel said before she took out a bag of extra arrows and threw the bag over to Merida, who caught it and was back to firing arrows at their enemies. Django continued to fire his guns until they were out and had to reload them and shoot again. He kept shooting down bandit after bandit, but still couldn't seem to get to Marcos. He rode off of the dirt ledge that led him back to the ground where he caught up behind the group's wagon and continued to fire the shots that he had in his gun at the pursuers. Hiccup was flying along, catching up with the group when he noticed the fight that was going on top of Jack and Jill's wagon, he knew that he needed to think of a way to help the cats, but he didn't know what to do. Then, He saw another stone pillar ahead of them and he got an Idea.

"Toothless, plasma blast" Hiccup said to the dragon that shot at the pillar from the bottom which started to fall down towards the wagon. Puss and Kitty saw this, stopped the fight, and jumped off the wagon towards their wagon which was right close to them just as the stone pillar fell down onto Jack and Jill's wagon, crushing the wagon with Jack and Jill still on it and the boars carrying it riding away as the reigns that were holding them were cut lose. Hiccup flew down close to the wagon and Astrid looked at him.

"Did I miss anything?" Hiccup asked sarcastically.

"Oh not much" Astrid replied.

"Though you did miss a bit" Merida said from the side. As they continued to move through, Alvin started to fly down towards them on his dragon, which Hiccup saw was heading straight for Astrid.

"Astrid lookout!" Hiccup called out to her. Astrid turned over to her right only to dodge an incoming attack from Alvin's mace. Astrid found a sword that was inside the wagon and picked it up. She used it in blocking the oncoming attacks from Alvin's mace while she was steering the wagon down the canyon and away from Alvin. Hansel, Django, Merida, and Gretel felt like the wanted to fire their weapons, but they were worried that they might hit Astrid or cause the dragon to crash into them. The teens inside the wagon were throwing rocks at Alvin and trying to swat him away with a sword or anything else that they had. Suddenly, just as Alvin was about to fire one last blow, a large fireball came flying straight at him and he and his dragon were disintegrated with one blast. The group moved away from the blast as it happened while Alvin's men and Savage looked in shock. One soldier who was on a groncle looked at Savage, who still looked in shock.

"What do we do now" the soldier asked Savage. As both Mildew and Alvin were dead, he felt that going on for this wouldn't be worth and more men could be killed.

"Forget the map" Savage said to his men "We're leaving now!" Then, as if they were hurrying for something, Savage and the remaining Outcast soldiers started to fly off into a different direction, abandoning the chase and flying back to Outcast Island. Soon, the witches were starting to throw firebombs and destructive spells down on the remaining groups below. Marcos and his men were still chasing after the group while the witches were raining hell down on them, and the group was hitting the remaining pursuers with everything that they have. Marcos could not stop as his adrenaline was pumping high and wanted to get his hands on that map, not caring about what was happening to his men at all. Then, as he was relentlessly pursuing the group, a fireball went into the group just in front of him, throwing him off his horse and onto the sandy ground, with dirt all over him and his hearing being lost for a brief moment. He saw that his remaining men were scattered in all directions and were moving far from the chase.

"Cowards!" Marcos called out to his fleeing men. He took out his gun and started to shot the men that started to flee. He saw one of his men on a horse that was close by, so he raised the gun and fired one shot killing the man before he rushed to the horse for him to use. He proceeded to kill the men who tried to flee before he continued down the road so he could try to catch up with the chase. Meanwhile, the witches still had their sights on the group down below them as they continued to throw their spells down with the group successfully dodging them and firing back at them with everything that they have. Merida looked at the quiver and needed a way to drive the witches away so they can get out of their situation safely. She looked over to Gretel, who was still shooting her crossbow.

"Gretel, we can't fight them much longer" Merida said "We need something that will drive the witches away" Gretel thought for a minute at what Merida said, then an Idea popped into her head as she reached the side of her saddle for an extra arrow that was kept at the side.

"Here, use this arrow, aim it straight at one of the witches" Gretel said throwing Merida an arrow that seemed to have a special feature to it that Merida couldn't quite put her finger on. She placed the arrow on the string of the bow and aimed it at the witches that continued to chase them from the skies. Merida pulled the string back, aimed it at the center of the group of witches, and released the arrow. Merida noticed that while it was flying through the air, the arrow seemed to extend and open up in the middle. Before she wondered what the arrow does, it hit one of the witches, and to everybody's surprise, the arrow exploded immediately after impact, causing the witches to be thrown off, including Vesta, who started to lose altitude and spin uncontrollably and to crash into the sand outside of the canyon and away from the chase. After they had successfully avoided all of their pursuers, the group started to cheer in triumph.

"We totally kicked their buts" Tuffnut said.

"Yeah, looks like we won't be seeing them for a while" Snotlout said feeling glad.

"I don't think it is over yet amigos" Puss said to the group "We still need to get to the site on the map. Besides, we just threw some of the pursuers off for a bit"

"He's right" Django said "They'll catch up with us, but right now let's continue on until we make it to the site" the others agreed and Hiccup and Merida pulled out the map, which was safe once again, as they moved out of the canyon and into the vast desert, with both siblings knowing that they are making it closer to their destination.

**Ok, so that's it for now. Once again if anybody is annoyed by that mistake I made in forgetting to post the previous chapter correctly I apologize, but like I said I fixed it. Anyway, we're almost at the end, just a few more chapters left, and the next chapter will be a very special one. So, please review and I will update as soon as I can (reviews give me the confidence to update). So until next time fellow authors and readers, see ya.**


	21. Reaching The Goal

**Hey there readers. So in the last chapter, we saw a huge chase between the group and some of their pursuers with the group emerging victorious in the battle and escaping the canyon back out into the desert, and in this chapter, they will come across a place that they are heading for, and a few surprises along the way. Anyway, I hope you like the results of my work, enjoy.**

Chapter 20

It had been a short time after the group had escaped the canyon as they continued to ride through the desert, with Merida and Hiccup feeling optimistic that they will reach their destination soon, and that the journey will be over. Merida, feeling like she had been riding for a while, had decided to walk while her horse followed next to her. Hiccup walked as well with Toothless at his side, and observing where they would go next with the map since he was closer to Merida. Hansel, Gretel, Puss, Kitty, and Django stayed on their horses to keep an eye out for anything while everybody else was on the wagon. Some of the teens, mostly Snotlout, were starting to have doubt that they would ever make it to their destination, except for Fishlegs, who was keeping an eye outside of the wagon.

"Ugh, we've been out here forever" Snotlout complained "Let's just give it all up and go home"

"Snotlout we've come too far to turn back now" Merida said to the Viking teen "Besides, according to the map we should walk for a mile longer, until we reach a small stone, then a trail of them will lead into the ruins of the village where the two lovers moved to and died in"

"You don't know what you're talking about" Snotlout said "We have been shot at, trailed for who knows how long, Astrid has stitches in her chest, and besides, you don't even know if those Gemstones are real!"

"That's why we're out here in the first place" Hiccup said "You may not believe that they're real, but Merida and I do"

"I think that they're real" Astrid added.

"I do too" Fishlegs added "This could be the biggest thing that we've ever gone after"

"Besides, they're doing this for family" Puss added "And that is just about the most important thing in someone's life" Snotlout tried to think of something to say, but he couldn't, so he just went back into the wagon and sat back down.

"This better be worth it when we make it" Snoutlout said quietly. Merida knew what they were thinking, as they had come a long way.

"I understand that this has been a long journey for all of us, and most of you are homesick, especially me" Merida said to the group "But don't worry. Since we're heading the way that the map says to go, we'll be there faster than you can say-" before she could finish her sentence, her foot felt something on the ground and she tripped. She let out a yelp as she fell down forward onto the ground, getting sand onto the front of her dress before she put her hand on the ground trying to get up. Hiccup rushed over to her, and everybody else stopped the horses so they could get off and help her up.

"Are you alright" Kitty asked Merida who was getting off the ground slowly.

"Yes I'm fine" Merida said "Just some sand on me but other than that I'm fine" she dusted the sand off her dress as everybody got out of the wagon.

"What did you trip on anyway?" Astrid asked her.

"I don't know" Merida replied "It was hard like a rock and it made me trip"

"Is that what it looks like" Ruffnut said pointing over to a small stone that was sticking out of the ground.

"I think so" Merida replied. She looked at the stone thinking that she should have been more careful, but after examining it a little more closely, something came into her mind "Wait, could it?" She got up and moved closer to the small rock that she had tripped on and saw that there were several markings on it that looked like the stone with the markings on the map.

**( watch?v=AVUZiLFPJhc)**

"Hiccup, do you think that this stone looks like the one on the map" Merida asked Hiccup. The Viking looked back at the map and saw that there was a stone similar to that one on the map.

"Yeah, it does" Hiccup replied "There should be a trail of them though"

"There is, look" Puss said pointing out another rock that looked the same, but slightly bigger.

"There are two of them" Kitty said.

"Actually there's more than two" Django said. They all looked and saw that there was a small trail of the stones that led through an area of scattered trees.

"Where do you think they go?" Astrid asked.

"Well, only one way to find out" Hiccup said. He began to walk in the direction of the trail while speeding up with Toothless following him from behind, and everybody else following suite. As they moved through the trail, the stones began to become bigger and bigger as if they were originally part of something that led into the village. The teens and the others of the group followed going through the trail as fast as they could, until they made it to an opening that revealed a sight that caught every ones eye. In front of them were the ruins of a massive village that was just down the hill that they were up. Hiccup looked at the map, and saw that they had finally reached their destination, which Merida felt as well. They both smiled and began to rush down the hill in excitement as the rest of the group followed them from behind as they could see the old ruins of the village, Toothless ran up to Hiccup and Merida as the two teens stopped in their tracks in the stone center of the village and looked around the ruins, which had some rubbles of what appeared to be a small castle where the person in charge of the village use to reside, followed by the rest of the group that stopped right behind them.

"It looks like we made it after all" Django said.

"Yeah, but we can't find the graves" Hiccup said.

"What do you mean?" Kitty asked them.

"On the map it says that it was buried with the two lovers who were put in two separate graves with the Gemstones in each grave" Merida explained "The only thing is we don't know where those graves are"

"Everyone spread out and see if you can find two graves" Hiccup said "One has the Berk crest, and the other has the Dunbroch symbol" soon, everyone split up, looking around the ruins to see if they can find the two graves. Toothless went with Hiccup and sniffed around to see where it was. Kitty and Puss looked high and low behind every hut, stone ruin, stable and wrecked house that was around, and everybody else checked everywhere as well through the ruins as they remained optimistic about finding the gemstones. They looked and looked until suddenly, they heard Astrid calling out from the distance.

"I found them!" Astrid called out "Over here" everybody stopped looking and followed the sound of her voice up the hill. Hiccup and Merida's hearts began to pound and minds began to race as they all ran up as fast as they could, with Toothless right beside them, Hansel and Gretel with some of the teens, and Puss and Kitty running on all fours right next to each other so that they could get there faster. They found Astrid, who was on a small hill right across from the stone ruins that had one big tree in the center of it, they all went up the hill, which wasn't that big and found Astrid where she was looking at the site she had just found for all of the group to see. They looked and sure enough, there were two gravestones made of wood right next to each other underneath the tree. One had the Dunbroch symbol on it, and the other had the Berk crest. Merida and Hiccup smiled as they looked at what was before them.

"Well, we finally made it" Merida said, clearly excited and happy "After our long journey and all the trouble we have been through we've finally made it"

"It looks like they buried it deep" Hiccup said noticing how the ground in front of the graves looked as if it had never been dug up before, probably due to the long time that the two people had been buried "We should get some shovels"

"I'll get them" Astrid said. As she quickly headed off down the hill.

"I'll come with you" Gretel called out to Astrid before she decided to come down with her. Everybody else stayed up on the hill to keep an eye on the graves and the cats used their paws to dig up as much as they could, but not as much so that they could save their energy.

Meanwhile, back at the spot where they stopped the wagon and horses, Astrid and Gretel were getting the shovels out of the wagon, while they were having a little conversation as well.

"It looks like you guys are excited now that you've found those gemstones" Gretel said.

"Yeah" Astrid replied "I'm glad for Hiccup and Merida, they'll be able to see each other a lot more, and we'll get to see them a lot more too"

"I'm glad" Gretel said before changing the subject "How's that wound" Astrid looked down at the area where the wound was and then back at Gretel.

"It's a little sore, but I bet it will get better" Astrid replied "I'm glad that arrow you gave to Merida got rid of those witches that were after us"

"Not exactly" Gretel said to Astrid "That arrow did get rid of them, but I asked her to aim for the other witches so that it would throw their leader off course"

"So I guess that she will still be coming here for those gemstones as well then" Astrid said.

"Yeah" Gretel replied. They were both grabbing the shovels and tying the horses to the back of the wagon, where they set off, and headed through the trail and down the hill to the rest of the group. Unknown to them however, Marcos was trudging along in the sand, seeing them head back to the group as he loaded his gun.

Back at the site, Astrid and Gretel got back to the group with the shovels in their hands where they saw that the cats were exhausted from digging some of the dirt, as they were buried deep, and handed some shovels to Hiccup, Merida, and Hansel to finish the job. Django was sitting near a rock that was right next to the tree to keep an eye out for any intruders, the teens were watching as the people were digging, and the cats were resting after doing their part. As the two cousins and Hansel were digging, Merida's shovel soon hit something hard and wooden and they all knew that they were getting close.

"I just hit something" Merida said to the others as she continued to dig and wipe the sand away from the grave. As Hansel was digging, and hit the grave, he noticed that there was a box attached to the top of the grave, and Merida and Hiccup noticed this with the other grave as well.

"Do you see this box?" Hansel asked the two cousins.

"Yeah we do" Hiccup said "Must be where they put the gemstones"

"It's like they knew we were going to find them" Merida said to them. Suddenly, they heard a shot that rang out into the air and hit the tree, everybody soon reacted and grabbed whatever they could get to defend themselves. The people that were digging the graves heard this and got up to see what was going on.

"Everybody find a place for cover" Django ordered the group. They all replied and hid behind the ruins of a stone wall, some rocks, and a pillar as they all looked out to see who was coming. In the distance, they saw Marcos Cortez walking down the hill and heading straight to where they stopped.

"Ugh, not this guy again" Hansel said under his breath, however he knew that Django was looking at him in interest, waiting to come out and reveal himself. Not far from where he was, the group noticed something in the distance flying towards them and saw Vesta had made her way through the desert and made it to the site.

"Could this day get any better" Merida said sarcastically. She aimed her weapon out as well as Hansel and Gretel, as the group were soon out in the open with their weapons out right where Marcos and Vesta could see them, waiting as they stopped a good distance away from them, with everybody's weapons trained on the two pursuers.

**I'm going to stop right here as a cliffhanger, but I assure you that it will continue in the next chapter. I hope you guys liked it, and Fun fact, the scene in this chapter will be reminiscent to a scene in "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" with the exact same music from the scene that appears in this chapter that I decided to include. Anyway, the next chapter will be filled with big, suspenseful, and revealing moments that just might surprise you, and then after that, I may write a little epilogue to save some time. Please review and I will update soon, see ya.**


	22. The Final Standoff

**Hey there my readers. In the previous chapter, the group finally found the old village and burial site of the gemstones and proceeds to dig, only for Marcos and Vesta to appear in the distance heading towards them. Now this is it, this is the moment that we've all been waiting for. In this chapter, things will be revealed, scores will be settled, and a final standoff will take place in the ruins of the old village. Just one more chapter and I might include a little epilogue if I have the time. I hope you like my results, enjoy.**

Chapter 21

The group members had their weapons at the ready as two figures, Marcos Cortez, and the grand desert witch Vesta made their way towards where they were. The wind was swift as dust and sand blew all around, but that didn't stop them. Marcos made his way to the group first as Vesta was a little farther away from them. Marcos looked at the group, and then the ruins that were surrounding them, and let out a breath.

"This must have been a wonderful village" Marcos said out loud for the group to hear "A proper place to bury two of the greatest treasures of all time" Merida then stepped out with her bow in her hands and an arrow notched into it, pointing at him from her far distance.

"Well, it's rightfully ours" Merida said "And I'm not going to let you take them"

"Neither are we" Astrid said as the rest of the group came out from their hiding place, including the cats, the witch hunters, Toothless, and Django, who seemed to catch Marcos's attention.

"It seems like you're outnumbered Marcos" Django said to them "So why don't you just walk away from this now" Marcos eyed Django, as he had been curious about him since he saw him with the group.

"You, I have been the most curious about" Marcos said to Django "You've targeted mostly my men, and you seem to have a grudge against me. I have asked you this before, so I will ask you again" he then threw his bag on the ground before turning back to him "Who are you!" Django looked at the man, anxious for an answer, and figured that now would be the best time to reveal himself to the bandit. Without saying a word, he slowly placed a hand into his shirt and revealed the necklace that had his parents weeding rings on it, which he removed from his neck and showed it to him from the distance. The rings seemed familiar to Marcos, and knew who they once belonged to. Then, to make sure he gets the full picture, Django loosened his shirt to reveal the scar on his left shoulder with the shot that he had received from Marcos's pistol.

"You took away all that I knew" Django said to him "Then you killed me" after he said that, the memory soon started to come back to Marcos about the massacre years ago as he continued to look at Django in interest and shock.

"So, it seems that my old friend had another child" Marcos said to him. Django put the necklace back around his neck and pulled his shirt back up as the hat he wore covered his eyes from the sun.

"Yeah, and his name is Django" Django said to him as he loosened his arms towards his guns.

"I remember those guns" Marcos said as he noticed the weapons around the young man's waist "Your father had made them himself. That lying, cheating thief"

"That's a lie" Django said "My father was a good man; he never told me anything about being with a bandit like you"

"Really? Well let me ask you another question" Marcos said to him "Does he still have my finger after what he did to me and my men?"

"What do you mean?" Django asked him. Marcos simply smiled as he turned to him and the rest of the group.

"Well, I suppose it's time that you had been told this story" Marcos said to him "The same goes to your friends" he turned facing only Django as he began to tell his tale:

"Long ago, your father was once one of the most skilled members in my gang" He started "He had designed weapons for us that we unlike any that others had seen and he was the fastest and most accurate shooter that I had ever seen. One day, we had planned to steal the heart of fire ruby from Queen Belagamba and take a bag of several hundred bags of gold as well. The job had been successful and we got away successfully. However, during the job a young woman, as beautiful as she was feisty, who was found by your father during the job, that we decided would make a good hostage. I had hired your father to keep an eye on her and make sure that she didn't escape. We took the girl and the jewels to out hideout in the far mountains. We made sure we kept the money, while the ruby I kept with my private collection. For some reason, your father started to develop some feelings for the woman as he spent time with while guarding her, and soon decided to make a move that would forever change his life. One night, while most of us were sleeping, he had taken a bag filled with some of the gold and the heart and gave it to the woman, and then he set fire to the hideout and went on to escaping with the girl. We cornered him where he was standing, but the woman escaped, but we had your father where we wanted. My men put up a good fight, but he seemed to have taken down each and every one of my men, so I decided to take care of him myself. After the fight, he had overpowered me and had me on the floor. To give me a warning not to follow him, he severed one of my fingers and left me in the cave with nothing more than dead bodies and a finger missing from my right hand. From that moment on, I had been searching for your father to make him pat with all of the men that I still had. I later learned that he and the woman had married and used the money to buy a small piece of land and start a new life, and I know I had him where I wanted him, so I took care of him, and I simply got my revenge" He held up one of his hands to show the group, which as he said, had one finger severed completely off. Django was surprised and shocked by this, as was the rest of the group as they looked at Marcos from their safe distance as well as Vesta "That father of your betrayed me and left me to die" he said to Django "I never forgot that night, and have buried it with the past, until now" Django looked at the finger, then at Marcos, thinking about all that he had revealed to him, and took a deep breath.

"Marcos" Django said to the bandit "I lost everything that you took from me, but now I realize that I did because my father realized that he had done a lot of bad things and made up for it in his own way. I know he had been with you and had done things that he soon started to regret, but I'm not like him. I followed my own path and made choices that I know were right. So I think you are the one to blame for starting all this. You lived the life as a Bandit, and I think you paid the price for it" At that comment, Marcos, who was listening to him, looked at him, surprised that he would take the information this way.

"Why would I be the one to blame? I made my own choices, and so did you" Marcos said to him. Django simply sneered at him and his hand went to his gun before they all heard a noise coming from the distance and saw Vesta coming out of her hiding place. She had her grasp on her wand that she kept in a sheath in her side.

"This is all very touching" Vesta said sarcastically to all of them "But I see those gemstones are being dug and I don't think that I want to sit here and see all of you talk"

"Don't think you're getting out of this so easily" Gretel said to the witch.

"Ah, Hansel and Gretel, famous witch hunters" Vesta said "What brings you out here"

"That's easy" Hansel said, as he took out a wanted poster that had Vesta's face on it "There is a price on your head, and we intend to get it"

"Ah, so you joined the group just to get me to follow you so you could kill me and claim my bounty"

"Well, that and we kind of felt like helping them anyway" Hansel said back to her.

"I guess I should take care of this now" Vesta said "So many men to kill, so little time" she reached for her wand and everyone in the group grabbed their weapons. Marcos was seeing this and got an idea.

"Stop!" Marcos said which caught everybody's attention "This would be a complete waste of our time. I suggest that we come up with a quicker way to take care of this" Django knew what he was thinking and started to get the same feeling.

"He's right" Django said "I'm thinking standoff, me and Hansel against you and Vesta" Hansel heard what he said and smiled, as he felt that he and his sister would get their bounty after all.

"Wait a minute" Marcos said "Are you sure that this is acceptable with your group?"

"I think we should let the princess in charge of our group decide" Kitty said as they all turned to Merida, whom Vesta was surprised that the girl was a princess. She looked nervous, but she figured that there was no other way to settle this, and she didn't want to risk anybody in the group getting killed. She looked at Hiccup and Toothless, who was still on guard but Hiccup managed to calm down, and then at the rest of the group, and took a deep breath before making her statement.

"Yes, we shall settle this with a standoff" Merida declared "If Hansel and Django are victorious, then we will continue to retrieving the gemstones, if not, then one of the pursuers will take the gemstones, but if you try to take any of us with you, we will not hesitate"

"Deal" Vesta said agreeing to this.

"Very well then" Marcos said, agreeing to this plan as well. During the time, Django was whispering something to Hansel, no one could figure out what they were saying, but it had to be some sort of Idea that Django had on his mind. They both looked at their opponents and then back at the group.

"So what about the rest of your little group" Marcos asked, looking back at the rest of the group.

"They will just watch from a safe distance and make sure that they don't interfere" Django said. He nudged his head to the side and that's when the group took the hint. So Merida, Hiccup, Toothless, the Viking teens, Puss, and Kitty went up the hill a safe distance from where they were, leaving Hansel, Django, Marcos, and Vesta down in the desert to face each other.

"We'll face in that stone center over there" Django said to them "Hansel and I will face the two of you from the other side, I'll find the place where each of us will stand" Then, he took a few different shaped rocks that were on the ground and walked over to the stone center in the middle of the ruins.

**( watch?v=bHZz8gIF_I4, 2:25 – 7:16)**

The young gunfighter walked up and down the area, seeing each area that they will stand at. When he was done inspecting the area around him, he looked up at the opponents and simply nodded to them. Django slowly started to move to the side while loading one of his guns and cocking one of the hammers back without anyone noticing, Marcos and Hansel were doing the same with their guns while Vesta took the covering strap off her holster showing the handle of her wand. They all looked at each other before they slowly started to walk towards the center and stopped at the edge of the stone. Django went first, slowly walking backwards towards his position while he had one of his guns cocked and in his right holster. Marcos loaded two shots into each barrel in his two barrel pistol before he cocked the hammers and placed it in his own holster. Hansel raised one of his hands to the bottom side of the shotgun and cocked it to be fired before looking at the witch, who just smiled and revealed her wand that she kept at her side, and started to slowly move to the side with Hansel facing directly at her. The rest of the group watched from the hill as the four warriors circled each other out in the stone center, watching as the shade of the tree kept them cool while the sun was beating down on the standoff contestants. They all circled around until they all stopped, two facing two on each side, and silence filled the air. Marcos eyed Hansel and Django as did Vesta, Hansel kept his eyes on Vesta and Marcos, and Django kept his eyes mostly on Marcos, with the thoughts of the massacre rushing through his mind and the deaths of those he loved, which would help him be as fast as they said his father was. His eyes were squinting, as well as Hansel, who was holding the shotgun with one of his hands, while the witch kept her hand close to her sheathed want, as the same with Marcos as he kept his hand near his pistol. Everybody waited, seeing to see which person would make the first move, and the group watched in anticipation as well waiting for the moment. Marcos slowly started to move his gun to his pistol as all of them eyed each other with suspicion and high alert. As if on cue, Marcos's hand darted for his holster, as did Vesta to her wand. It was at that moment, Django reached for his gun, and in the quick of a flash, shot down Marcos and then slammed the hammer right before he shot the wand out of Vesta's hand as she was about to throw a spell. Hansel saw his moment and raised his shotgun. Firing one shot right to her left arm, a second shot into her chest, and a final shot to her head, which sent her flying backwards and onto the ground dead. Everybody in the group looked in surprise and in happiness as the two of them had won the duel and that they can take the Gemstones. Hansel slung his shotgun back on his holster while Django noticed that Marcos was moving a bit while panting heavily, attempting to raise his gun to fire the shot and he cocked the hammer on one of his guns. As Marcos was about to aim and fire, Django fired a shot from his gun, and it hit Marcos, sending him tumbling off of the stone center and to the ground. After that, he twirled the gun in his hand back into his holster, knowing that he had finally gotten his revenge.

"That, was, Awesome!" Tuffnut said out loud for everybody to hear. Both men turned to the group and saw them coming down towards them. Django smiled lightly as did Hansel as they met up with the rest of the group. Merida, Hiccup, Astrid, Toothless, Gretel, Puss and Kitty were the first to congratulate them before they were given compliments of respect by the other Viking teens; Astrid looked over to where Vesta was lying dead and turned over to Hansel and Gretel.

"It looks like you two will get your reward after all" Astrid said, with Gretel smiling at the comment and Hansel to let out a short and soft chuckle.

"Well, not so fast" Django said "Let's see what's in those two boxes first" Everybody looked at each other before Django looked at Merida and Hiccup, who were starting to get what he was meaning . They both looked at each other before they started to dash back up the hill to where the graves were being buried, with the others following them.

"Hey wait for us" Fishlegs called out to them as he and the others ran to catch up with them. Once they made it up the hill, Hiccup and Merida finished digging, and they all looked in curiosity as they brought both boxes up for the entire group to see. Hiccup then saw that there were small compartments that held the keys. Hiccup and Merida then bent down back into the graves and pulled the keys out. Now both of them had the boxes out for everybody to see, they looked at each other, and then back at the others.

"Go ahead" Astrid said "Open them up" Both cousins smiled as they each took the key and unlocked the boxes. They slowly opened the boxes, and a sight of miracle came to everyone's view. In both boxes, there was an egg shaped gemstone the size of a small cannonball that seemed to be made out of clear, carefully cut blue and green colored quartz. One gemstone had the Dunbroch symbol, and the other had the Berk crest on it. Everybody looked at this treasure in awe and amazement as both cousins each held one of the gemstones, smiling as the entire group saw them.

"Holy Flee holy's" Puss said as he looked at them "They do exist"

"I'll be damned" Django said looking at it in interest.

"Looks like that map was right after all" Hansel said. Astrid then noticed how Tuffnut and Snotlout were slowly reaching for the gemstones, and she stopped them.

"What are you two doing?" Astrid said looking at the two guys who knew their cover had been blown.

"Uhh, we were just going to look at them" Snotlout said trying to come up with a good lie.

"I know what you're trying to do and the answer is no" Astrid said. The others seemed to know what they were thinking as well and Puss and Kitty stepped in as well.

"I agree with her" Kitty said "I don't think guys like you would be worthy of guarding it"

"Besides, those two gemstones belong to them" Puss said motioning to Merida and Hiccup "It would be best if they would be the ones who guard it" Merida and Hiccup smiled at each other and then turned to the group.

"We've been on a long journey" Merida said "And I think that it was finally worth it"

"Yeah, thank you guys" Hiccup said to everybody in the group "We mean it" They all felt proud of this and how they were able to make it.

"We should dig these graves back up" Django said.

"I agree" Merida said "It would be the right thing to do" After they dug the graves back up, Merida and Hiccup each took one of the chests containing the gemstones and took it with them to their mounts, with Merida putting the Dunbroch gemstone in her back as she rode Angus, and Hiccup putting the Berk gemstone in his bag as he rode Toothless. Hansel and Gretel had loaded the body of Vesta onto one of their horses to bring back to the authorities while Django decided to leave the body of Marcos behind, but he kept the double barrel pistol as a souvenir. So they all loaded up everything that they had and headed out to the road, to head back home after their long journey.

**Alright, so they found the gemstones and they're heading back home, but it's not over yet. There's only one more chapter to go (I was thinking about doing an epilogue, but then I decided to incorporate it into the next chapter). I hope you guys liked it, and it was my Idea to have it be four people taking part in the final standoff to take it to the next level (not two, not three, but four). I also included some references from the Mexican Standoff scene in "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" for some good measure (with the same music from the scene in there as references as well). Anyway, please leave some reviews, and the final chapter will be up soon. See you later readers, until next time.**


	23. The End

**Hey there readers. So this is it, the final chapter for "A Fistful of Gemstones", I didn't think that the story would be that long, with 22 chapters to prove it, might be the longest story that I've ever done but it was worth it. I'm glad that you guys have been following the story, and I'm glad that I can get it under wraps. Anyway, please leave a review when you're done, and I hope you like the end results.**

Chapter 22

After several more days out on the road, the group had made it back to the port town where they first started their journey and were picking up supplies for the journey back as their ship was waiting for Merida, Hiccup, Toothless, and the other Viking teens. Hansel and Gretel had just gotten back from the Sheriff's office, turning in the body of the witch (which would eventually be burned) for the reward money, and after they got back with the small pouch of gold that they put in their bag, they joined, Puss, Kitty, and Django into helping the group get their supplies, including the gemstones, onto the ship for their voyage home. Hiccup and Merida were leading Toothless and Angus down into the stables below deck before they went to return the horses and the wagon over to the clerk that they had stopped by when they first arrived. The teens were then allowed to go to the tavern for one final drink before they departed, but not without some of their escorts there in case there was more trouble. After spending a fun time in the bar before their departure, the group got out of the bar and headed back to the docks where their ship was just about to depart from the docks. They had all stopped by the gate plank and waited for the others to come over and say their farewells to them. Soon, Hansel, Gretel, Puss, Kitty, and Django had made it over to where they were and started to say their goodbyes to the group. Merida and Astrid went up to Gretel, who looked at them.

"We just want to thank you for what you did for us" Merida said to Gretel.

"It's no big deal" Gretel said "I think it is fine to help somebody every now and then"

"We'll miss you" Astrid said "And good luck with you and your brother"

"Thank you" Gretel replied as they gave a few farewell hugs and shakes before Merida walked over to Hiccup and Hansel, who was saying his farewells and best wishes to Django.

"So what are you going to do not that your score has been settled?" Hansel asked the young gunman.

"Well, I hear that there is some more trouble out in the country side" Django replied "I know that there is a lot of trouble out there that needs to be taken care of"

"I hear you" Django said.

"Well then I guess that we wish you good luck then" Hiccup said to Django.

"Same to you" Django said to Merida and Hiccup "You're families will be glad to see that you two have those gemstones"

"Indeed they will be proud of us" Merida said, smiling as she looked back at the boat "And I know that our families will be happy to see us back home safe and sound" It wasn't long before Puss and Kitty walked up to them.

"I guess this is farewell then" Puss said to them "It was an honor to be at the assistance of royalty"

"Any time" Merida said "And who knows, maybe we'll cross paths again someday"

"Maybe we will" Kitty replied "I know that your families will be very proud of you two" Merida and Hiccup smiled at the comment. Then one of the guards went up to the deck and said that it was time for them to set off.

"Well, it looks like it's time for us to leave" Merida said. The rest of the teens proceeded to say goodbye to their friends before they headed off to the boats.

"Make sure you get home safely" Django said.

"We will" Hiccup said "We won't forget you guys"

"And we shall never forget you or your other friends as well" Puss said as the ship began to pull out of the port and into the harbor. The people behind them waved goodbye to the teens on the ship, and they did the same as they sailed off into the ocean. After the ship went out of their seeing distance, the people who had escorted them on their journey said their goodbyes before Kitty went off with Puss, Hansel went off with Gretel, and Django went off by himself, all of them going their separate ways.

After the teens had gotten back to Scotland, Merida and Hiccup's families were thrilled to see them, greeting them with hugs and asking them if they got the gemstones, which they showed them. In a ceremony, King Fergus and Stoick had both Hiccup and Merida reveal the gemstones to the clans, which signified the island of Berk as part of the alliance with the four clans. Each gemstone was then divided and taken back to its rightful home, with the Dunbroch gemstone placed in royal family's castle, and the Berk gemstones placed in the great hall on the island of Berk. Hiccup had written the account of the story in a notebook so that he wouldn't forget it, and even told the story to his father and some of the other residents on the island. Merida had shared the story with her parents, who were pretty amazed by it, and both knew that it must have been quite the adventure that Merida and Hiccup faced. Her younger brothers Hamish, Hubert, and Harris needed to go to bed, and Merida had yet to tell the story to them, so she decided to tell it to them in their room. The story got them hooked and Merida told them that they would hear the rest of the story if they went to bed, which they did. After telling them an amazing story of two ancient gemstones, a lone drifter seeking revenge, two cats who lived the lives of outlaws, and two siblings that hunted wicked witches, her brothers went to sleep as she just finished telling them the tale. She slowly closed the door as her brothers slept soundly. As both Hiccup and Merida look back on that adventure, they know that somewhere out there, the warriors that had escorted them on their journey were living good lives, and that they brought justice to places where life has no value, and safety to the innocent who lived out in those lands. They knew they had thanked them for everything, and they would never forget that faithful journey that united their families and brought peace to their homes and loved ones.

**(Ending theme: watch?v=J4x7RchYCMc)**

**The End**

**So that's the end of the story, after a period of three months it's finally done. I hope that everybody enjoyed reading it, and glad that you followed the story through. I didn't think that the story would be this long, with twenty two chapters, but I guess that a lot of effort can be worth it. I know this chapter was a little short, but I didn't think it needed to be that long. I would like to give credit to the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone ("A Fistful of Dollars" (1964), "For a Few Dollars More" (1965), "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" (1966), and "Once Upon a Time in the West) for giving me the inspiration and Idea for the story. Anyway, leave some reviews so you can tell me what you thought of the chapter and the story in general, it would be very appreciating from all of you. I will see what my next project will be, but until then, I hope you all enjoyed my story. See you guys later, and remember, when you have to shoot, shot don't talk (a little reference to a line that was said in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly). Bye for now.**


End file.
